


Olympian Bending

by Tzapporah



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Post-Finale Avatar, Post-House of Hades
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-09 09:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 28,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1144393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tzapporah/pseuds/Tzapporah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A strange spell was cast on the Doors of Death, sending our heroes to a world where their powers are almost commonplace, but not quite right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted on Fanfiction.net by myself. I will update both as I come out with new chapters. The opening references events in my friend's fanfiction.net story. The Forgotten Ones: Lieutenant Jee. I highly recommend the story. (author is Evilnor).
> 
> This story was begun well before House of Hades actually came out, so the events of HoH aren't actually included. I went back and retconned a few of the things that I liked from HoH when it came out, however. (Namely Frank's makeover and the changes in various characters' arsenals.)
> 
> Enjoy!

The newly promoted Captain Jee was still working to familiarize himself with his new situation. The last few days had been…there was no other word for it…surreal. Less than a week ago, he'd been a prisoner and a traitor to the Fire Nation; the Lieutenant who'd evacuated his ship and the men on it from the North Pole as soon as he saw the moon go red and had then DARED to not even repent that decision. The Lieutenant who'd clearly sailed with the exiled Prince for too long to NOT be able to keep his mouth shut about how much of a moron Zhao had been, and worse, how much of an idiot the Firelord had been for listening to him. He allowed a small smile of satisfaction at that memory to pull at the corner of his mouth.

* * *

 

"We can't give up now! We're too close."

"They're overwhelming us, and I'm not sure how much lo-," *THUNK*

"LEO!" *ROAR*

"He's unconscious. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know….But we'll think of something"

* * *

 

A few days ago, the warden had come to Jee in order to get him "cleaned up" for his formal sentencing before the Firelord. The warden had failed to mention, however, that Ozai was no longer the Firelord. It took some gossipy barbers for him to become privy to _that_ particular snippet of information. Unfortunately, that source of information was quite lacking as well; the idiots knew all the rumors, but couldn't be bothered to even learn the _name_ of the new Firelord. He had been FURIOUS to learn that the Avatar had apparently installed one of his own companions in the position of Firelord rather than the Prince Zuko, whom Jee knew deserved the position. No matter how powerful the boy was, he couldn't just destroy an entire dynasty! Where did this… _usurper_ get off attempting to claim that title? His loyalty belonged to Prince Zuko and no other, and he had said as much at his hearing. The as-near-to-outright-laughter-as-she-ever-got from the gloomy-looking Fire Nation noble girl on one side of the Firelord; the small girl in Earth Nation colors on the other side's incredulous, "Get this. He's completely serious!"; the figure only seen in shadow through the curtains of his palanquin shaking in amusement made complete sense in hindsight, but they had pissed him off no end at the time.

* * *

 

"FOR ROME!"

"FOR THE GODS!"

"How…."

"So…is this good or bad?"

"Well, they don't appear to be killing each other, so I'm going to say good for now."

"Works for me."

"No argument here."

* _Whinny_ *

"Hey, no need to be pessimistic. He might be an asshole, but even he isn't narrow-minded enough to not see what's going on here."

* _nicker_ *

"Good gods, where do you even _learn_ language like that?"

"Time and a place, man. Let's get back to the task at hand, O.K.?"

*SCREECH*

"Yeah, good call…let's do this!"

* * *

 

When he'd been escorted to the Firelord's ship by the sadistic bastard of a warden, the Firelord had apparently gone off with the Avatar somewhere to pick a few people up. The noble girl, who was apparently the new Firelord's _girlfriend_ of all things, gave him the grand tour of the ship during which she realized that he believed Prince Zuko to be dead. She had not disabused him of that notion. She just let him seethe and build up his righteous anger until the Avatar and Firelord returned.

_Good Lord_ , he thought, _I attacked the friggin' AVATAR with lethal intent._ Neither his surprise nor his joy could've been greater when Firelord Zuko, himself, had literally dropped down from above to break up the battle.

* * *

 

"Do you feel that?"

"Yeah…what do you think Gaea's doing?"

"It's not Gaea."

"What?"

"It's Octavian. I can see him from here. It almost looks like he's casting a spell."

"Where in Hades would he possibly get a spell? Wait…scratch that…it's Octavian, and he's a conniving bastard."

"I don't care where he got it. I want to know what it's doing."

"Is it just me, or does the ground at the base of the Doors look like it's turning?"

"Um…definitely not just you, and not just at the base of the Doors. The stuff under us is moving, too."

"I can't get out of it!"

*TRUMPET**ROAR**SCREECH*

"It's like a whirlpool sucking us in. Looks like once it has you, you can't even fly out."

*SCREECH*

"I don't speak Eagle, but I'm gonna guess that was a cuss."

*NEIGH!*

"I didn't need a translation, much less an addition. Everyone hold on as best you can!."

"I'll do my best to keep Leo safe."

"DAMMNIT OCTAVIAN!"

* * *

 

He had to admit, looking back on it, that it had been quite funny…and overwhelming. He was now a Captain, and specifically the Captain of the Firelord's own personal ship, and what a magnificent ship it was! Zuko had said that the rank did not matter to him, and he would promote Jee to whichever rank he preferred, but Jee had opted to stay Captain, at least for a while. Even so, he knew that the entire fiasco would be something he would be a long time living down. Mai seemed to always have a ghost of a smirk on her face whenever she glanced towards him and little Toph just laughed outright. The rest of the Avatar's cadre couldn't completely seem to decide between amusement and wariness, especially Katara, who was fiercely protective of him. He remembered her from a few encounters back when he'd traveled with the then-Exiled Fire Prince Zuko, and she'd not been the most accomplished bender in the world. However, the way he'd heard it since, she was the one who'd aided Zuko and had actually dealt the final blow to defeat Azula…during the comet, no less!

_Oh well,_ he thought, _time cures many ails._

He looked up into the nearly clear sky, at the small….gray…swirling…growing…wait…WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

* * *

 

"ANNABETH! HOLD ON!"

"PIPER! I CAN'T GET TO YOU!"

"I'LL BE ALRIGHT! LOOK AFTER YOURSELF."

*SCREEECH!*

"I'LL BE FINE, FRANK! WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF! ARION AND I'LL LOOK AFTER LEO!"

*WHINNY*

"HAZEL!"

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY? JUST GO TOUGH SO THAT YOU CAN GET US OUT OF THIS!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH !"

* * *

 

It was like a whirlpool was opening up in the sky. Some might scoff and say, "That'd be a tornado, moron," but tornadoes go down…this was going up. Plus, it was the only "cloud" in the sky. Then there was the fact that it was now grayish-red and moved more like a liquid than like air. Then, of course, there was the fact that it was growing...

It was only a few seconds before Jee's shock was overridden by his training to sound the alarm. However, the ship's lookout showed why he had that position and beat him to it.

"DANGER FROM ABOVE! POSSIBLE BENDER! ALL HANDS SECURE SHIP AND PREPARE TO DEFEND!"

Even under these circumstances, Jee couldn't stop a small surge of satisfaction at seeing how efficiently this small and fairly new crew executed their duties. He and Zuko had done well over the last day or two in gathering them. It was not long before he knew they had their tasks in hand and he returned his attention to the growing phenomenon overhead.

The door opened behind him, and soft, urgent, footfalls announced the arrival of Katara from belowdecks. He was glad that she hadn't gone with the others to drop their friends back off at Kiyoshi Island. He was no slouch in the bender ability department, but it was good to have backup. There is nothing quite like the confidence that a powerful waterbender gives you when you're at sea. In addition, he'd been told that she was an excellent healer.

"What is it?" she said, just a hint of trepidation in her voice.

He could only answer with a shrug.

Both had their attention riveted above, but Jee could see Katara fall into a defensive waterbending stance out of the corner of his eye. As powerful and accomplished as he'd been assured she was, he couldn't help wishing that the Firelord and Avatar hadn't gone on their detour. He frowned at the swirling funnel above him at that thought. An airbender would be a really handy thing right about now.

He shook himself. No use dwelling on what he _didn't_ have. The maelstrom was nearly 50 meters across now, but it seemed to have stabilized.

Katara tensed next to him. Cursing the damage prison nutrition and poor lighting had done to his eyesight, he strained to see what had alerted her. A few agonizing seconds later, he spotted them. There were several shapes, barely more than specks at the moment, swirling out from the center of the phenomenon. He counted about a dozen at first, but as he watched, some would get close to others and just disappear. After approximately 10 seconds, there only five figures left and they appeared to be getting closer. As they neared the event horizon of the funnel, he realized that they were people. Three were clearly individuals, one of the figures looked like two people holding onto each other closely, and the fifth and final one looked like someone astride a creature he'd never seen before with another person flopped over the pommel.

Everyone's attention was glued to the figures now. They watched in fascination as the first of the figures reached the edge of the circular boundary. It was as if they'd been shot out of a sling, and they were thrown about 200 meters in front of the ship. The other two individuals followed rapidly on similar trajectories, but slightly different angles from the first. The two astride and their mount were flung aft of the ship. The embracing duo was the last to reach the edge of the vortex. They were flung directly towards at the ship.

Katara demonstrated that her reflexes were still definitely battle-ready as along with her hand, a wall of water shot up to catch the flying figures. They were moving rapidly enough that she didn't quite manage to stop them. She was able slow them down enough that they didn't become a greasy dent on the deck, but they did reach the railing on the other side with a muted, head-first *CLANG*


	2. Katara

*CLANG*

Katara winced. "You, check on those two," she ordered as she simultaneously pulled on her waterbending power and sprinted for the edge of the ship, "and keep them stable until I get back." She vaulted the railing onto the cresting wave and surfed off towards the nearest of the other fallen figures. If the speed that those two had been going when they reached the ship were any indication, then the water wouldn't have felt all that soft and very well might have knocked them unconscious.

She was panicked to discover that her fears weren't unfounded upon reaching the first figure, face down in the water. She formed an ice floe underneath the girl, turned her over and waterbent the water out of her lungs, vaguely noticing that the girl had an appearance not dissimilar to a member of the Water Tribe.

Filing away the information for later, Katara sped off towards the site of the second impact, ice floe in tow. Here, at least, the boy was face-up. He was large, solid and, most importantly, breathing. She was a little surprised that he'd managed to not get _any_ water in his lungs, but wasn't about to complain. She created another floe under the boy and joined it with the one she already had, and sped towards the third figure.

This was another boy, face-up like the last, but looked like no one she had ever seen before. She only had enough time to take in his straw-colored hair before bending the small amount of water that had made its way into his lungs. She added him to her growing ice-gurney and went off in the direction of the final site. As she passed the ship, she deposited her current load on the deck as gently as she could while barely cutting her speed to the last spot. She noted with approval that the men aboard had been waiting and prepared for her return.

She was unable to see the final figures until she rounded the ship, but what she saw almost broke her concentration enough to send her head-first into the ocean. There, standing on the water, was the strangest-looking creature she'd ever seen. It had four legs that ended in hooves and a head not completely unlike an ostrich-horse, but with a soft, rounded nose rather than a beak. As if the fact that it was standing _on top of the water_ wasn't enough of a shock, it also had two bodies flopped over its back and was looking at her with a very intelligent and wary expression in its eyes.

"Um….can I take those two back to my ship over there? I'm a fairly decent healer and can see to their injuries…" Katara ventured tentatively. The creature didn't move. It just stood there, staring at her warily.

She crept a little closer; the creature's nostrils flared, but showed no sign of either moving away or attacking. She took that as a tacit agreement to approach. She edged her way towards the beast, picking up speed as she went. The two figures on its back were clearly unconscious. The girl looked as if she had actually been riding the monster, whereas the boy was flopped over on his belly crosswise, as if someone had lifted his already-limp body and thrown in across to transport him. It didn't take much of an inspection to see why they might have done so; the boy had clearly taken a nasty blow to the head.

Realizing that it was unlikely the creature would follow her back to the ship, she created another ice floe. The clearly-intelligent animal seemed to understand what she needed. It slowly knelt and helped her roll the two off of its back. Once it saw the two were secure, it whinnied and zoomed off across the surface of the water at an impossible speed. Katara stared after it for a few seconds… _where the hell is it going?_ She shook herself; worry about that later. There were injured people needing her help and she'd wasted enough time.

When she arrived back at the ship with her two final charges, she saw an ordered chaos on the deck of the ship. A quick survey showed her that this highly-competent crew had been ministering to the first five new arrivals, and it only took a few seconds for the two she brought with her to be integrated into the makeshift triage center. She saw the Captain beckoning her urgently over to one of the prone figures. The boy was not one of the ones she'd brought in from the ocean, so he must have been one of the two that had impacted the ship. There was no doubt in her mind as to why Jee had called her over. He had a deep gash in his side, as if he'd been sliced by a jagged version of one of Zuko's swords, and judging by the slightly gray-greenish tinge of the exposed flesh, the wielder probably had used a poisoned blade. There was no doubt in her mind as to why Jee had called her over.

Katara cursed under her breath and turned to order the nearest crewman to retrieve a tub of fresh water for her. The order died on her lips as she saw that someone, probably the Captain, had already anticipated her request. She allowed a little smile to come to her face at the efficiency of this crew. Any amount of time saved increased the injured boy's chances. Speaking of time, she prayed that she had not wasted too much of it dealing with that creature at the final crash site. _Please let me be able to save him_ , she thought as she enveloped her hands and went to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a few preemptive notes/responses. I had a friend look over this before I posted it, and she brought up a couple things that I'm going to address here.
> 
> 1\. Some of you may be familiar with the phenomenon called the "dead man's float" which causes bodies to float face-down. The operative word in this is "bodies." The phenomenon is caused by decomposition, so it does not hold true for unconscious people. Unconscious people can float either way.
> 
> 2\. Yes, it's odd that Frank has no water in his lungs. This is intentional and has to do with the abilities he got from his mom's side of the family. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to read Son of Neptune. Many things in this story won't make sense if you don't know either universe. I'm not going to waste more time than I have to rehashing the sources. If you have a specific question, feel free to ask and I may answer =P.
> 
> 3\. For those familiar with the Percy Jackson books who haven'talready figured out who each of the crashing individuals are:
> 
> a) Annabeth and Percy are the ones that hit the ship.
> 
> b)Piper is who Katara picked up first. I had the commentary about her looking like a water tribe girl because Piper is a Native American and Water Tribe members were clearly patterned after Eskimos.
> 
> c) The second floater was Frank, who's Chinese features would allow him to fit in in either the Earth or Fire nations quite easily.
> 
> d) The third one was Jason, who's described as being blonde with blue eyes. Does anyone remember seeing anyone in the Avatarverse with blonde hair? Nope, which is why he and Annabeth are going to stand out like sore thumbs.
> 
> e) The "strange creature" is Arion, child of Poseidon and the fastest creature on land and across water. He is a horse, and has befriended Hazel. As to why he shot off away from Katara, that is completely his nature. When we first met him in Son of Neptune, he'd been held captive by the Amazons for a while. He's a free spirit and not about to be captured again. He'll come when Hazel, or maybe Percy calls.
> 
> f) The two on Arion's back were Hazel and Leo. Leo was knocked out by a monster during the prologue. The reason the two are still on Arion's back is because NOONE falls off him if he doesn't want them to. The trio didn't actually hit the water, Arion was able to stop them from making impact. Hazel, however, was knocked out from flying debris in the portal.


	3. Captain Jee

Jee and his crew had not been idle. Three crewmen reached the pair that had made such a resounding entrance onto the ship before Katara had even made it over the railing. They separated the two from their mutual death-grip and began cleaning the wound on the boy before Katara deposited the next three. By the time she returned with the final two, the deck was an efficient first-aid center, and a messenger hawk had been sent to alert the Firelord of the happenings on his ship. Jee had ordered the large tub of water brought up the instant he'd seen the boy's wound. Fresh water was usually a premium at sea, but the Firelord's personal vessel, with the Avatar and a very powerful waterbender on board, had no such handicap.

The injury on the boy who'd impacted the deck was extremely nasty. Jee might not know who these people were or how they had gotten there, but no one ever deserved an injury like that. The gaping hole and gray-greenish tinge made him fervently hope that Katara's skill was as great as he'd heard, or better. He observed for a few seconds after she returned and began her ministrations on the boy, but Jee knew that his hovering would most decidedly  _not_ make the process go faster, so he redirected his attention to other details. Observation was always a soldier's first weapon, after all.

_Sozin's embers, they're all children!_  It was true, not a single one of the seven wounded strangers looked old enough to join the Fire Navy.  _Then again,_  he thought,  _the same could be said of the Firelord and his friends. I know better than to underestimate someone based on their age._  After all,  _that_ particular group of adolescents reshaped the world in less than a year.

There were three girls and four boys; counting the one Katara was currently ministering to. All were covered with a myriad of minor cuts and bruises, as if they'd been in a battle just prior to landing in his crew's collective lap. The fact that most of them appeared to be armed in some way supported that idea.

The boy currently under Katara's care looked to be the oldest of the group, but that very well may have been the fact that his face had a deathly pale pallor to it from blood loss. Jee attempted to compensate for this while making his observations, and estimated the boy to be somewhere near Mai's age. He had black hair and pale skin, just like anyone one might find in every nation but the Water Tribe, but something about his appearance was slightly off. Jee couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something…different. About the face, maybe? He filed the information away for later analysis. The boy's clothes were difficult to place, as well. His bright orange shirt was currently deeply darkened with his own blood, and most of his clothes were in tatters.  _He looks like he's been living extremely rough for a few weeks at least_ , Jee thought to himself.

A thought occurred to him, and he looked up at his crew. "Bring clean clothes for them from the stores," he ordered.

"Already did, sir."

Jee nodded and allowed himself a satisfied smile.  _All those days of hard work to hand-pick my crew are starting to pay off_ , he thought, then returned his attention to his observations of the newcomers.

The girl who'd arrived with the badly injured boy looked to be about his age and wore a similar orange shirt, similarly stained with his blood, and similarly tattered. The details that really caught his attention on her, however, were at either end. First of all, her long curly hair was the same kind of yellow color as straw. In his many years of service and travelling, he had never even  _heard_ of someone with yellow hair.  _Where could she have come from?_  He wondered. On the other end, her foot was wrapped in what Jee recognized as a makeshift splint. It was so filthy, Jee had not initially thought it all that odd. It was only when the crewman tending to her began to cut it off that Jee noticed the material it was made out of. Once the outer layer was removed, the underlying layers were shown to be yet another oddity.

The crewman in question noticed his commander's scrutiny. "Sir! The material is fully transparent, and extremely tough. It is almost as if someone made glass as tough as leather. Air pockets are built into the material. Only a few are still in tact, but they appear to once have been ubiquitous."

Jee gave a curt nod, and the crewman returned to his work with another "Sir!"  _One more oddity to be added to the list. What in the name of Solizon's eternally scorched grave was going on here?_

A glint of metal a little farther up the girl's body caught his eye. One of his men had just relieved her of a wicked-looking sword that appeared to be made of bone and showed it to his captain. Jee nodded to acknowledge that he'd seen it and the crewman brought it over to where some of the personal effects of the patients were already being placed. The only weapon currently over there was a bow with a quiver of arrows.  _Good,_ he thought, _separating them from their weapons helps minimize the threat._

As he turned his attention to the next girl, Jee couldn't help thinking of Katara when he looked at her. She seemed to be about the same age and coloring, and the single over-the-shoulder braid that her hair was in screamed "Water Tribe" at him. Her clothing, however, served as a distinct counterpoint to this image. She, like the other two, wore a bright orange shirt, albeit in much better repair, a jacket that was a splotchy four-colored green, a pair of blue pants, and boots that almost looked military-issue. The crewmen were in the process of removing the waterlogged jacket, and one pulled a large bronze dagger out of one of the pockets, and a bronze sword from a scabbard at her side. The crewman immediately got up to add it to the other collected weapons and/or unexplained accoutrements, which now included a strange article with multiple bulging pouches.

The next one was a large boy, maybe around Zuko's age, but he was not an easy read. His body was large and powerfully-built, not unlike a grown man's, but his face betrayed his definite youth with black hair and the complexion that Jee often associated with citizens of the Earth Kingdom. His clothes were just as strange as the others, but this one's shirt was a bright purple instead of orange. Jee did not see any weaponry on him, but the evidence of scrape-marks inside the boy's left forearm led him to believe that this was the owner of the bow and arrows. It was during this inspection that he noticed something quite odd on the boy's _other_  forearm. It was a black tattoo, consisting of the image of two crossed spears with four blocky characters below them and a thick line below those.  _Yet another oddity to add to the rapidly growing list._

The third boy had on a purple shirt like the last, and seem be around Zuko's age, like the last, but that was where the similarity ended. Where the other was almost comical in the juxtaposition of his face and body, the best word Jee could come up with to describe this one was "honed." Jee was strongly reminded of Firelord Zuko, and the state his constant conditioning from a young age had left him. The fact that this boy also had a scar on his face, although nowhere near as prominent as Zuko's, helped to cement the comparison. He, like the first girl, had the strange yellow hair color, although his was more like gold than straw. A motion from one of the crew tending him allowed Jee to see that he had a black tattoo on his forearm as well. The difference was that instead of crossed spears, his looked to be some kind of predatory bird, and he had twelve thick stripes as opposed to the other boy's single stripe.  _Hmm…some sort of organization symbol, perhaps?_

The final boy could have been anywhere between young Toph's age and Katara's. Unlike the other boys, he was small and did not appear to be in the best physical shape. He sported a mop of curly brown hair and a complexion that implied he spent most of his time in the sun. His orange shirt looked to be stained with splotches of grease and oil, and upon closer inspection, Jee noticed that similar grime was encrusted under the child's fingernails. One of the crewmen was in the process of wrapping the boy's head in bandages due to the nasty-looking wound he'd received there. Someone had been none too gentle when knocking this boy out, assuming they  _hadn't_  meant the blow to be fatal.  _I wonder why someone was so desperate to put him down. The others seem to be a far greater threat._

"Was he armed?" Jee asked of the crewmen attending the boy.

"No, sir. The only odd thing he had on him was that belt with all of the pouches on it."

"Understood. Carry on."  _Maybe he'd just been unlucky._

The final arrival, and last was definitely the youngest of the bunch. Jee found it highly unlikely she was older than Toph. This girl, however, was also the strangest of the group to Jee's eyes. As strange as the yellow hair had been on the two others, he could accept it because hair could always be dyed or bleached, but the same could not be said for skin. He had not known it was possible for someone to have a complexion as dark as hers, even in the Southern Water Tribe. It was like a rich mahogany, perfectly complemented by thick, black, and extremely curly hair. Her shirt was purple, and her right arm was emblazoned with one of those tattoos that he'd observed on the two boys. All three had the same four glyphs in the middle, but hers had an additional glyph that vaguely resembled a cross above, and a single stripe below.

_Three of them have those tattoos? Did I miss them on the others?_  Jee double-checked the other new arrivals, and found that he'd only missed one on the first boy, whose was almost identical to the girl's and the large boy's, but had a trident as the emblem on top.  _So…four_ ,  _and it almost looks military in nature. If it weren't for the first boy, I'd think that they corresponded to the purple shirts. Definitely very strange._

Jee made his way over to the crewman sorting and classifying the teens' personal effects. Two more weapons had been added to the collection; both of them appeared to be made of gold. One was an ordinarily-sized, if oddly-shaped longsword, while the other was a long, oversized beast of a thing. Jee could see how someone could carry it, but it would be rather awkward to wield hand-to-hand. Gold was also a very strange material to see used to make a weapon; it was just so soft, heavy, and  _expensive_. These two weapons, however, looked as if they had not only seen battle, but served their users well in it.

"Report, crewman!" Jee commanded.

"Sir. For ease of identification, we have assigned numbers to each of the unidentifieds. Number 1 is the boy that the Lady Katara is currently aiding. He carried no weapons we were able to locate."

"Number 2 is the young woman who had been entangled with him. She carried a crude, yet well-made sword of what appears to be some form of ivory or bone on her person." The crewman gestured to said implement on the cloth before him, and Jee nodded, having already observed this fact. "The condition of the sword indicates that it has been used in several battles, and is far stronger than its material would indicate." Judging by the girl's physical condition, Jee couldn't say he was surprised. "She also carried this pack on her back," the crewman indicated, "Inside we found a few rations and a strange rectangular slab with a triangle etched on it. The slab appears to split down the middle, however we have not yet found the method of separation. We have no idea what this might be, sir." Jee was clueless in that regard as well, but gestured for the officer to continue.

"Number 3 is the Water Tribe girl. She carried one dagger, also bronze. The condition on hers, however, implies that it has been used rarely, if at all, in actual combat." The crewman indicated the mirror-perfect surface of the implement. "She also carried a well-used bronze sword at her waist." Jee nodded again, tacitly assimilating the report and indicating the crewman should move on.

"Number 4 is the large boy. He was found to have bow slung over his shoulder and a quiver attached to his back." Jee internally congratulated himself. So his powers of observation hadn't gotten as rusty as he feared. "The bow is nondescript, much like any bow the Fire Nation uses. The arrows, however, seem to be highly customized. I have so far successfully identified two kinds. The ones with the yellow fletching have tips made of gold. The ones with the green fletching appear to have a method of splitting once fired, although I cannot be certain of this. I have not yet been able to identify what any of the other do, but I believe it is safe to surmise that each color denotes a different type of specialty arrow."  _Huh, so not even something as familiar as a bow is without mystery in this group._

"Number 5 is the golden-haired boy. He carried a sort of longsword, which appears to be made of gold, but is far harder and lighter than it should be if that was the case. The design and craftsmanship is unknown. This weapon also appears to have seen several battles."

"Number 6 is the small, dark boy. He carried no weapon we could find, and had this strange belt around his waist. It appears to have approximately 20 full pouches, but we are unable to find anything in them." Jee's eyes widened in surprise,  _full, but they can't find anything inside…how does that work?_  "We do not understand the phenomenon as yet, sir. We will continue to examine the object." Another nod from the Captain indicated his acceptance and desire for the report on the seventh and final member of the group.

"Number 7 is the brown girl. She had one, overlarge sword strapped to her side, golden like Number 5's. Hers is a good handspan longer than his, however, and has a rounded tip." Jee took a quick look back at the girl. The sword must have come up past her waist! How in the Firelord's name did she  _walk_  with it on, much less use it? "This weapon also appears to have seen several battles. Attendants also found this half-charred piece of wood wrapped protectively and stored under her shirt. No logical explanations have presented themselves at this time, sir."

"Thank you, crewman, make sure you take notes for an official report. Carry on." Outwardly, Jee was the calm and composed captain that he should be; inwardly he was frantically trying to apply logic to what was going on before him.  _Seven teenagers fall out of the sky along with a large animal. I have no idea what happened to the animal, and Katara cannot afford the distraction of me asking. All seven of them have clearly come from battle, and one might not make it. All but two are armed with unknown weaponry, and one of the others has 20 pouches that are both full and empty at the same time. One has a pack with a strange slab of_ something _inside. Four look unlike_ anyone _I've ever even heard of before, and the Firelord is off with the Avatar and all of his friends except for the Lady Katara. Scorch it all to ash! He didn't even know why_ she'd _stayed behind._

It was all so strange. Far too strange for this world, and he'd served with General Iroh long enough to lead him to one conclusion. The Spirit World. Jee brightened a little at this thought. Relations between the Spirit World and our world fell under the Avatar's purview.  _And he should be returning shortly._

As Jee looked to the horizon expectantly, a painful groan alerted him to the fact that one of the new arrivals was regaining consciousness.  _Maybe I can get a few answers on my own._


	4. Hazel

 

***THROB***

_Ow…_

***THROB***

_Five more minutes…_

***THROB***

_Fine, I'll get up…_

***THROB***

_What happened?_

***THROB***

_Did I dream that?_

***THROB***

Jumbled images flooded into her consciousness. A roaring army. Leo's limp and bleeding form thrown across Arion's back in front of her. A sea of orange and purple shirts with a skinny figure in black at their head. A whirlpool of earth forming beneath her feet. A resounding terror of being buried by Gaea again. Clinging onto Arion for dear life…then blackness.

***THROB***

_Thanks for the reminder…_

***THROB***

The black was turning to a reddish color.  _Huh? I guess that's an improvement. Why does that color seem so familiar?_

***THROB***

_Oh, right…my eyes…I should probably…_

***THROB***

_…open them…_

* * *

Hazel groaned at the bright intrusion. She squinted blearily and uncomprehendingly at the source of the light.  _The sun…so at least I'm not dead and/or buried._  A blurry form intruded into her field of vision. She concentrated and an Asian face with large muttonchops swam into focus.  _Heh, haven't seen 'chops like those since I died the first time. Wait…Asian? If I didn't know any better I'd think Nico'd taken us on one of his less directed Shadow Travel trips._

"Who're you?" She said blearily, belatedly wondering if he even spoke English.

"I am Lieut—Captain Jee, and I could ask you the same question." He replied in a firm, but not unkindly tone of voice.

"Um…Hazel. Um…where am I?"

"You are aboard the  _Roku's Legacy,_  the Firelord's personal vessel." He replied in the same even tone.

Adrenaline quickly tore through the last vestiges of her grogginess at the word "Fire". Her right hand reflexively shot towards where she kept Frank's piece of wood. Her heart seemed to stop dead when she found its familiar bulge absent.

Her panic must have been evident on her features, for the Captain's face softened. "It's alright," he said in a gentle and reassuring tone, "we mean you no harm. I understand your mistrust of the Fire Nation, but much has changed in the past month."

Her face slid from blank panic to wary confusion.  _Fire_ Nation _? Ok, I know a lot's changed since I was in school, but since when was there an entire nation named after fire? He could just be making a bunch of random stuff up, but to what end?_

Lucky for Hazel, the man had misinterpreted her reaction and continued to elaborate. "The war is over, miss. The Avatar defeated Firelord Ozai, and Firelord Zuko is ushering in a new era of peace and understanding. Don't worry; you have nothing to fear from us."

_Well I certainly find your obsession with fire worrying. But,_ she admitted grudgingly,  _I have yet to see anything threatening. Still, I'd be a sorry excuse for a legionnaire if I didn't stay alert, and right now, that means getting as much information about what is going on as possible. How should I go about doing that, though? Gods damn it; I'm no good at this._ THINK _, what would Annabeth say?_

"Um….huh?"  _Masterfully said, Hazel. This was supposed to be what_ Annabeth _would say, not Percy!_

"Huh?" The Captain echoed back. Of all the responses he'd been expecting, clearly a complete lack of understanding had not been one of them.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about. What war? What's 'The Avatar'? Who are…what was it…Fire-something Ozai and Fire-something Zuko?" The questions came out in a rush.  _Not a perfect recall, but it'll do. I've usually got a pretty good memory for unfamiliar names and terms, although I have a nagging feeling that I've heard that last name somewhere else. If Percy'd been in this conversation, he'd probably have butchered every other phrase_ , she thought, fondly recalling his "Feast for Tuna" blunder upon his first night at Camp Jupiter.

There was a clang and a scandalized gasp as the female soldier to Hazel's left dropped the small bowl of water she'd been using to clean Hazel's minor wounds. The Captain did a much better job of hiding his astonishment, but his eyes widened a good deal. "That would be former Fire _lord_  Ozai and the current Fire _lord_  Zuko, miss. Where are you from that you had not heard of the war? What is the name of your village?"

"Well…I grew up in New Orleans, but then my Mom moved us to Seward, Alaska when I was eleven." She might as well be honest about the simple things. She knew she wasn't the best liar, and it was easier to keep track that way.

He looked thoughtful. "Hmm...I have not heard of either of these before. What nation were your villages in?"

She looked at him incredulously. "Well, I'd hardly call New Orleans a  _village_ , but both were in the United States of America."

"I…see." Hazel could almost see the gears turning in his head. She'd watched his face during the entire exchange, and it was clear New Orleans, Seward, Alaska, and even the damned U.S.A. were even more foreign to him as the names of those two Fire _lords_ had been to her.

An awkward silence had developed as the two processed what the other had said. Hazel was the first to break it. "Well, now that the pleasantries and general questions are done, I have a question of a more immediate nature. Namely: what happened to my things?"

"Your effects were removed from your person shortly after you came aboard. We find it best to be cautious when dealing with the unexpected, especially when the unexpected is armed."

Hazel was slightly confused for a second at that statement.  _Armed? Oh, right, my_ Spatha _'s missing, too. Wait…if he saw it as a weapon, he can't be a normal mortal. This situation just got a lot more potentially hazardous._ "That certainly makes good tactical sense. Would it be all right if I at least got my non-weaponry back?" She tried to make herself look as small and unthreatening as possible at this statement. "It just has a great deal of comfort value for me."

He looked at her for a long moment. "If I were to return these objects, would you agree to share some additional information about yourself and your companions? I would particularly like to know about the phenomenon that dropped the seven of you in my lap."

Hazel mulled over his proposition and returned his gaze. She could see nothing wrong with what he was asking. He had even worded it in such a way that she could easily conceal a great deal without breaching the agreement. "That seems a fair deal, sir, as long as you also answer some of my questions."

The Captain nodded his agreement and gestured to the young soldier to her right who had been tending to her cuts and bruises. The young man stood and walked towards a large Chinese-style pavilion to Hazel's left. She saw that a cloth had been laid out near the door, and on it she saw some very familiar glints of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold, as well as the unmistakable bulk of Leo's magical toolbelt.  _So now I know where they're keeping our weapons. No idea what I'm going to_ do _with that info yet, but it's a start._

The Captain's voice wrenched her out of her ruminations. "Do you feel well enough to stand, miss?" He asked, hand out.

"I…I think so." Hazel responded, accepting the proffered hand. Her throbbing head objected to the sudden elevation change, but she ruthlessly ignored it and instead focused on her surroundings. There were a good thirty soldiers bustling around with an air of efficiency. The similarity to the Twelfth Legion post-War Game was strong.  _Everyone knows where they should be and what they should be doing. These people are experienced._ Whenever something works together as smoothly and steadily as this, however, it makes it far easier for an outsider to see what is out of place. In this case, the most glaring to Hazel was the figure in blue and white at the other end of the…platform?...walkway? from her. The figure's garb stood out in stark contrast to the greys and reds that abounded everywhere else. However, the deference that the soldiers around the figure were clearly showing told Hazel that the person probably did belong there.

She was pulled from her musings by the return of the young soldier with her fire-retardant underarm pouch, Frank's piece of wood, and a small handful of coins of assorted currency. "Here you are, miss."

"Thank you," Hazel replied, "Um…could you possibly give me a moment of privacy to put this on?" She gestured to the pouch.

The young soldier turned a deep red and stammered out an, "Of course, miss." Clearly he'd been there when it had been removed. He quickly picked up the large blanket that had, until recently, lain across her and averted his eyes as he held it up. The Captain only hesitated half a beat before turning as well. The female soldier, however, stood up and assisted Hazel in lifting her shirt and reattaching the pouch to her bra. "Alright, Captain, let's get started."

The Captain turned around with a faint smile on his face. "Well, miss, let's start with the names of your companions, seeing as how you've been so kind as to tell me yours."

"Seems reasonable enough, but I'll need to see who else…how did you put it?...'fell into your lap' along with me before I can be certain. Care to give me the tour?" She gave her best ingratiating smile and gestured in the general direction of the rest of the bustle.

 


	5. Hazel

"Care to give me the tour?"

A small smile graced the Captain's face. "Indeed, miss. I would be glad to escort you around this part of my ship."

The smile on Hazel's face froze.  _Ship? How did I not notice this before? Now that I look carefully over the solid railings, I can see the expanse of water. Judging by the width of this deck, it must be absolutely_  MASSIVE _. Great. First a big, nasty battle at the Doors of Death. Then, our plan gets ruined when a Laistrygonian got in a lucky hit on Leo with a bronze fireball. Of course the fire didn't do anything to him, but the bronze whiffleball, when being thrown by a giant cannibal, was plenty. Then, Octavian with that whatever-it-was spell-thing he used to turn the ground into some nightmare combination of muskeg and a tornado. Then I wake up to find myself with a throbbing headache in an unfamiliar place with surrounded by members of what is clearly a fire-obsessed military organization. And to top it all off, I have to worry about my MERDIQUE SEASICKNESS!_

Her…displeasure must've shown through her façade. "Are you alright, miss?" The captain asked, warily.

Hazel gulped. "Yeah…I…I'm sorry. It's been a long day, and…well…I tend to…lose my…composure…when I'm on a boat." Hazel gave an apologetic grimace. "Let's just say that realizing where I was just felt like an extremely annoying topper to an all-around crappy day."

The Captain was apparently used to landlubbers and caught on to what she was talking about. "I see, maybe we should bring a bucket with us…just in case?" One corner of his mouth quirked up just the barest minimum.

"That sounds like a good idea. I'm not feeling the need right now, but better safe than sorry." She offered with a weak smile.

Without another word, he scooped up a nearby empty bucket by the handle with his left hand while graciously offering Hazel his right arm.

She accepted the balance help gratefully, knowing that the man's overtures and postures were at least partially calculated. The captain wasn't warm to her, but neither was he exactly unwelcoming. Wary might have been a better vocabulary term for him. Even so, she was surprised that he'd let himself be so hampered.  _He must either be very confident in his crew to come to his aid in an emergency or an extremely competent fighter in his own right._ She had little doubt that he was ready to spring into action if she showed the any real threat, and to a skilled brawler, a bucket could become lethal.  _The third option, of course, is that he completely underestimates me because of my age, but my instincts are telling me that that is most definitely not the case._

The first of her companions that she saw was Leo. He was a bit pale under his brown Mexican complexion, and most of his curly mop of brown hair was covered by a bandage around his head, but apart from that, he looked as if he could just be sleeping. Still being wary of her new situation, she only shared Leo's first name, his age, and that he'd been hit in the head by a thrown rock. In return, she was told that his wound had looked worse than it was and it shouldn't take him more than a day or two to regain consciousness. She silently thanked the gods as she and her stoic escort moved on.

Frank, Jason, and Piper were all in pretty good shape, just wet. Judging by their salt-crusted hair, they'd floated in the water for a bit before being picked up. Considering their current state of unconsciousness, Hazel guessed they'd probably inhaled some water before they'd been picked up. All three were breathing steadily now, so she didn't let it bother her more than necessary. This time all she could give were names and ages. She quite honestly told the Captain that she didn't know what had happened to them.

The final two demigods were along the other side of the deck, and as she and the Captain made their turn, he pulled her up short with a few very pointed questions. "Before we move on, there are a few things I need to know that you have not yet answered. Namely: What was that thing that brought you here? Did you come through the Spirit World? and, finally What is the meaning of the tattoos on yours and some of your companions' arms?"

Hazel blinked. Initially, Hazel wondered why he'd brought this up  _now._ Was he trying to stall her seeing Percy and Annabeth? It was a worrying notion. She was also a bit surprised at his final two questions. The first she'd been expecting, seeing as how he'd pretty much already asked them while they'd struck their bargain, and the third seemed odd that he'd be so interested, but it was the second that confused her the most.  _Spirit World? Does he mean my father's realm? I'm sure I would've noticed_  that _!_ She decided to answer what she could while trying to ponder what she couldn't. "I honestly don't know what that thing was. In fact, I'm not completely positive who or what was the cause of it." This was true. She couldn't be sure if it was Gaea or Octavian. Percy certainly had seemed to think so as it was opening beneath them, but where would he have gotten the ability to do such a thing?

"As to the tattoos, well...we're part of an...organization back home. It's sort of a family-thing, and the tattoos have three distinct parts. First, there's the initials of the motto  _Senatus Populesque Romana,_ or SPQR," she said while indicating the related areas of her own tattoo, "then there is the crest that denotes who our..." she paused for a moment to do a quick catalogue of her tattooed companions, "...father is." The Captain's eyebrows raised almost imperceptibly "And the stripes show how long we've been members." There! Not a single lie, but not the whole truth either...crud, now for the hard one.

"What do you mean 'Spirit World'? Do you mean the Land of the Dead? If so, it certainly didn't feel like that.

He gave her a long look. "No, I do not mean the Land of the Dead. I am referring to the realm of the Spirits, as in the Spirits of the Natural World."

Hazel's confused look must have convinced him that she had no idea about what he was talking. "Hmm...I guess we'll have to work that part out later. Let us move on with what we were doing."

Hazel nodded with some trepidation. There had been something almost ominous in the word 'later,' she was rudely knocked out of her ruminations, however, when she saw what was at the foot of the next bedroll.  _That is a lot of blood soaked into that pile of clothes. Oh gods, whose is it?_  Her eyes traveled upward fearfully to see Annabeth lying serenely with only the normally-expected cuts and bruises.  _Thank the gods, it's not hers, or if it is, these guys have amazing healing skills._  Something different happened in her and the Captain's exchange of information this time. This time it was  _his_  turn to inform  _her_  how her friend had come to be unconscious.

"Wait…she flew into that wall  _head-first_?" Hazel wondered how that could possibly lead to less bandaging than what Leo had.

"Yes, although your final companion seems to have managed to shield her from the worst of it." His eyes wandered to the final bedroll, where the figure in blue Hazel had noticed before was kneeling. Up close, Hazel could see that it was a girl that reminded her of some of the Inuit tribes up in Alaska. Her gaze traveled down to the soft blue glow coming from the girl's hands. Hands enveloped in water. Hands positioned over a large gash. A large gash in PERCY'S SIDE!

"Oh Gods," she breathed, "no." Percy was paler than he'd been upon first sighting of Polybotes, the anti-Poseidon. He looked so sickly, weak, and—she could barely form the thought—still.  _He looks like he's already halfway to Elysium._

"Katara is an excellent healer, if anyone can save him, she can." The Captain said in a reassuring tone.

The sound of her name caught the girl in question's attention and she looked up. "I'll definitely do my best, but I honestly don't know if I can. Whatever he was hit with had an incredibly nasty poison on it, and I've been doing all I can just to clean it out. It's acting like an acid, but one that only affects him. It's almost as if the stuff has a mind of its own and  _wants_  to attack and destroy him specifically. It's strange . . . I don't know what else I can do."

The "destroy" caught Hazel's attention, and she suppressed her revulsion and examined the wound more closely. She was sure she'd seen that gray-greenish color before…but where?  _Arrghh! I'm useless! I see my friend helpless, even more helpless than when we were hiding from Polybotes, and I can't do a damn thing. Merde, at least that had been a one-time thing. During the Battle of Camp Jupiter, Percy'd barely even flinched when the confronting the giant, even though the creature had already demonstrated the multitude of poison-related abilities. Wait…poison…particularly lethal to Percy…THAT'S IT!_  Hazel gasped with excitement at her sudden idea.

"Get him into the ocean!" She blurted out, excitedly.

Her exclamation was met with a shocked silence and stunned stares. She had to explain herself quickly without giving away too many of Percy's secrets. "My friend has what you could call an … affinity for seawater , and if I'm right about what type of poison that is, submerging him in it could be the only way to save him."

The girl—Katara, as she remembered—gave her a look that clearly showed she had at least a thousand questions, but all she said was, "Are you sure?"

"Not completely, but is there another choice?" Hazel responded.

Katara nodded and waved her hand towards the water. Hazel's eyes grew to the size of saucers as she saw the water rise at this girl's will.  _How in the name of my father can she do that? Is she Percy's half-sister? If she is, is her father Neptune or Poseidon? Percy is going to completely flip when he wakes up._  All of this ran through her head as she watched the water scoop both Percy and the girl up and gently carry them overboard. She moved the railing and watched as Katara lowered her charge into the water next to her. She was only dimly aware of at least a half-a-dozen others joining her at the railing and watching the pair with bated breath.

_Please let this work…Percy, we need you._


	6. Katara

Katara couldn't believe she was doing this.  _This guy has a deep, poisoned gash in his side, and I'm submerging him in ocean water. Even if he doesn't get an infection, he's weak enough that the sheer shock of the salt water making contact with his wound might just kill him. Why in the name of the Moon Spirit did I agree to this again? Right…it's because 20 minutes of me working on him did absolutely no good, and almost seemed to help_ spread _the poison. I still have no idea how he's even in as good a shape as he is. Somehow, even with that unmistakably-fatal wound, he'd been stable that whole time. It was as if something_ else _was sustaining him. I doubt I would've agreed to this part of it if that hadn't been the case…now I just hope this works._

Katara didn't miss the shocked look on the dark-skinned girl's face as she waterbent the ocean water to gently carry herself and the wounded boy over the side of the ship, but she had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Katara cautiously lowered the boy into the water, being careful to minimize the shock to his system by gradually letting the salt water cover the wound. She was unprepared, however, for what happened next. As soon as his wound was halfway under the water, the boy convulsed, arching his back in agony. Katara nearly had a heart attack at the sudden, violent reaction and nearly had a second one when she found she was unable to waterbend him back out of the water. In fact, she couldn't even  _touch_  the water around him; a particularly worrying development, since his head was now under water and she could do nothing about it.

"PERCY!" came the agonized scream from above. She looked helplessly up at the horror- and panic-filled dark girl's face. Clearly this was  _not_  the reaction that she'd expected when she'd come forward with her theory about her "friend." Either that or she was an exceptional actress. A quick transformation of the girl's expression to surprise and hope effectively redirected Katara's attention to her charge.

His body was still bent backwards, and now only the very tip of his belly was above water, but it did not take long for Katara to see what the girl had looked so hopeful about. At first, Katara couldn't be sure if what she was seeing was really real or a trick of the refraction through the water. The ocean water was doing on its own exactly what she'd been trying to do on deck. It was effectively sucking all of the poison out of the boy, but even more surprising was that it wasn't taking any blood along with it. Not only that, but the water seemed to be actively  _destroying_ the stuff, rather than diffusing as she was accustomed to seeing. Even through the distortion of the water, she could see the boy's flesh taking on a much healthier color. As if that weren't enough, his flesh began to knit back together right before her eyes. Katara was completely dumbstruck by what she was seeing.

The same could not be said about the dark girl up on the deck, who let out a triumphant whoop when the wound was halfway closed. Katara was broken out of her stupor a few seconds later, when the now fully-healed boy kicked out and dove downward. Katara, already worried about how long the boy's head had been underwater, instinctively tried to waterbend him back. Given what had happened when he'd submerged, Katara half expected her waterbending to have no effect and was pleasantly surprised to experience a different sensation.

Katara had been in battles against other waterbenders before, and knew what it felt like to be in a contest of bending wills, although not since her early days with Master Pakku had she been so solidly on the losing end of one. The water tug-of-war only lasted a few seconds before the boy on the other end suddenly let go, causing a backlash of water that hit Katara full-on in the face and, judging by the cries of surprise from the spectators, splattered part of the deck as well. Katara was barely ready for the follow-up wave, but her reflexes took over, allowing her to split and redirect it. Five more waves came in rapid succession from other angles, to which she gave the same treatment.  _Ugh, where_ is _he? There's no way he could be moving around that fast. I can't retaliate if I don't know_ where  _to attack. This guy's waterbending is frighteningly powerful, probably more powerful than Aang! And how has he not drowned yet? His head has been underwater for a good five minutes now, and I'm almost sure he hasn't made a bubble around himself._

A lull in the action allowed Katara to process that the girl above had been screaming out the entire time, desperately yelling for the boy to stop. Apparently the boy heard as well, because his head finally popped above water some fifty yards to Katara's right. He was looking up at the girl on deck with a confused expression on his face.

"Hazel? What in Hades is going on?"

"Um…I'm not completely sure, but as far as I can tell, they're trying to  _help_  us. In fact, that girl there was trying to heal you…Kelp Head." She said the last part with a smirk.

Strangely enough, that final comment more than anything seemed to convince the boy of the truth of the situation. His expression went from suspicious to sheepish as he turned and made his way over to Katara. "Um…sorry about the misunderstanding. I guess I overreacted."

Katara couldn't restrain her response. "Ya think? That was a crazy display of power that could've done serious damage to the ship! What possible reason would you have to react that way!?"

"Hey! I'll have you know that the last thing I remember is being in the middle of a fight for my life, then I wake up in more pain than I've ever experienced, which is saying something, and I can't move. Then, as soon as I  _can_  move, I feel something trying to pull me back with the water, so I went into combat-mode. SO SUE ME!"

"Hey guys, as amusing as it is to see Percy make an ass out of himself, how about you come up here and continue this conversation a bit more calmly." The last statement came from a male voice that Katara didn't recognize up on deck. She turned her head to see that the large Earth Kingdom boy, the Water-Tribe girl, and the yellow-haired boy had all regained consciousness and come to join their dark companion on the railing. Judging by the sarcastic smirk on his scarred face, it was the yellow-haired one that had spoken. Both he and the water tribe girl seemed very amused by the entire situation. The dark girl and Earth Kingdom boy were too busy sharing a bone-crushing hug.

The ass in question, Percy he seemed to be called, replied with, "Laugh it up, Sparknotes." He then turned to Katara and gestured towards the ship, "Shall we?"

Katara couldn't help the sense of familiarity that exchange evoked.  _Wow…it's almost like Aang and Zuko…or me and Toph._  In reply to Percy, however, she merely nodded and gestured to bend the water under their feet to gently rise and deposit them on the deck. Percy looked at her with mild surprise and open curiosity as he felt the water move under him.

"How…how are you able to do that?" He asked, cautiously.

It was Katara's turn to be surprised, "I'm a Waterbender like you. How else?"

"A what? How in Hades could anyone 'bend' water? It's a liquid." He paused as a thought occurred to him and he cautiously asked. "Um…who're your parents?"

The question took Katara by surprise and her concentration wavered, as did her rising water-platform. "Woah," said Percy, and the water instantly leveled out without any sort of gesture or movement on his part.

"Ok. My turn. How did  _you_  do that? How did you waterbend without moving?"

The boy didn't answer, but ran his fingers through his hair distractedly. As the water deposited them on the deck, he lamely followed up with, "It's just what I do?"

"Eloquent as always, Seaweed Brain," a weak voice said from behind Katara. She spun around to see the yellow-haired girl sitting up and looking at Percy with a weak smile on her face.

"Annabeth!" He exclaimed and began to run towards her.

It was then, with his ever-perfect timing that Zuko made his grand entrance, dropping down from Appa between them. "What is going on on my ship?"


	7. Annabeth

"What is going on on my ship!?"

To say that Annabeth was surprised by this sudden arrival would've been an understatement. It wasn't all that often, even in the lives of demigods, that someone simply dropped out of the sky. She glanced quickly upwards to see where he came from and ran into yet another surprise. An enormous white, brown and gray shaggy beast was hovering above them. Two more people were in the process of climbing out of what looked suspiciously like a saddle and sliding down one of its six legs to drop themselves down onto the deck. In all of her study, she'd never even heard of a beast similar to the behemoth she currently saw above her, but her demigod senses didn't allow her to be riveted for too long, as she caught the approach of another person, who was, for lack of a better word, gliding in from a different angle, making a beeline for the blue-clad girl that Percy had been arguing with.  _Is…is he riding on a kite?_

Not allowing herself to be distracted for too long, she returned her attention to Percy, who she saw was also rapidly returning his gaze to the person in front of him. Annabeth noted that Percy was poised for battle with a glint of bronze indicating that he had Riptide in his hand, but had not yet uncapped it. Considering what they had both been through in the last month, and what he'd been through the weeks before that, that particular fact surprised her. She took a quick glance around and quickly saw his reasoning, though. Of their band of seven, Percy was the only one that hadn't been disarmed out of the five she could see and herself. This led to another worrying thought.  _Where's Leo? Is he alright?_

At this point, the gliding person, a bald boy that was probably about Hazel's age, landed next to the blue-clad girl and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just a little wet. How about we just dry ourselves off and put this misunderstanding behind us?" The last she said in an overwhelming tone of hopeful optimism while turning towards Percy, apparently ignoring the angry man clad in red and gold standing between them.

Clearly, this wasn't enough of an explanation for the others. "WHAT? A MISUNDERSTANDING?" yelled the angry man, the flying bald boy, and the dark-skinned blue-clad boy who'd just joined them from the flying shaggy thing above. "From what we could see, that 'little misunderstanding' nearly capsized the boat!" The last part tagged on by the last of the three.

"Look, I'll explain later, ok? Right now I just want to get dry."

Percy's eyes had been flickering between the three during the entire discussion. "Um…Question." All eyes turned to him as his eyes looked straight at the girl with confusion. "Why would you need to 'dry off'? Why did you let yourself get wet in the first place?"

"Um…because we were both just in the ocean? Of course we're…" She trailed off; clearly she'd only just notice that Percy was perfectly dry. Annabeth couldn't help the proud smirk that came to her face. Children of Poseidon only got wet when they wanted to. "How are…? Did you waterbend yourself dry when I wasn't looking?"

"Did I who with the what now? I was never wet to begin with." replied Percy with genuine confusion.

The as-of-yet ignored red-and-gold man had had enough at this point. "When I got here, you were lunging towards and about to attack my friend here. Am I supposed to believe that  _that_  was a 'misunderstanding' too?"

Percy's face morphed from confused, through offended, gave way to a brief flash of realization and settled on an expression that Annabeth had never actually seen on his face before. It was as if he'd put on the politest mask he could possibly find, but was looking out through it with what he'd explained to her as his "wolf glare." That look spoke of the calm before a storm, something she knew he was perfectly capable of actually causing. That look said in no uncertain terms that, "I'm currently doing everything in my power to remain calm and reasonable, but if the dam breaks…" With the complexity and barely disguised hostility of that look, his voice was an intense counterpoint of pure rationality. "Yes. Especially since my destination wasn't even Katie, here. Instead, I was heading to my obviously-injured girlfriend lying over there, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would move aside so that I can reach her."

The four were clearly taken aback by his statement and change in demeanor as well as his answer. All four briefly looked over their shoulders at her and she saw four eyes widen in surprise and flashes of understanding. She and Percy watched as the four gingerly stepped aside, the visible side of the angry young man's face revealed itself to be contorted in an extremely embarrassed-looking grimace.

Percy wasted no time in rushing to her side. He stopped just short, however, with a worried expression. Annabeth decided to allay his fears by throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down into solid and passionate kiss.

After what felt like ages and mere seconds all at once, they broke apart. "Can you stand?"

Annabeth smiled at his tone. "I think so, but I think I might need a little help. Think you can handle it, Kelp Head?"

Percy smirked gently and said, "Yeah…I think I can handle that, Wise Girl." He wrapped one of his strong arms around her back while she wrapped hers around his neck and he gently lifted her to her feet. "Sorry about the delay, Scarface over there kinda got in the way."

She frowned a little at that comment, but a quick glance behind him explained the nickname. The angry-now-sheepish young man had a particularly nasty burn scar on the left side of his face. Annabeth winced a bit in sympathy, even considering the obvious age of the wound.  _Ouch…what could have done that? It's like he got a fire blast directly to one side of his face._

Annabeth gingerly tested her balance and then nodded at Percy when she found it satisfactory. "Thanks babe. No offense, but I think it'd be better all-around if I took it from here." She said the last with a slightly admonitory look, which he returned with slightly sheepish acknowledgement.

In the time it had taken for the pair's exchange, the quartet had been joined by the girl in green that Annabeth had seen descending from the giant furry flying creature earlier. The scarred young man from before, who she now realized wasn't much older than herself, stepped forward, radiating authority despite his shaggy hair and a somewhat causal-looking sleeveless V-neck and loose shorts. In a way, he reminded her a lot of Percy. Annabeth decided to take the initiative. "Sorry about my boyfriend there. Things have been a bit…hectic for us lately, and he's always been a bit of a hothead."

She was rewarded with a surprised, yet sympathetic smirk from the scarred teen. "I've known to be called that, myself, from time to time. I've even done the surprised overreaction thing before." With the last, he shot a quick guilty glance at the green girl. "I'm Zuko, and these are Aang, Sokka, Toph, and I think at least a few of you have already met Katara."

Annabeth felt Percy stiffened slightly and heard Piper barely suppress a snort behind her at the name "Zuko." She'd have to ask them about that later. Instead, she smiled back and said, "I'm Annabeth, this Kelp Head is Percy. Behind me are Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank." She noticed that a clean-cut, middle aged man had come to stand beside Zuko and pointed to each of the demigods in turn as she named them. Her eyes narrowed a little at that, until she heard a soft throat-clearing behind her.

"I...um... actually already shared our names with Captain Jee, there, before anyone else was conscious," she said, "It was the most prudent decision at the time."

Annabeth nodded to let her know she agreed with the decision, and returned her attention to Zuko. "Well then, that leaves only one pressing question, then. Where is Leo?"

At Zuko's look of confusion, the man identified as Captain Jee stepped forward. "The young man in question is right over there. " The gray-clad soldiers parted when he gestured to show Leo's prone, bandaged form approximately thirty feet away. "He sustained a rather substantial head injury and has not yet regained consciousness."

"What are you talking about?" the young green girl, Toph, interjected. "He's been since we got here."

It was at that point that Leo burst into flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On a side note: I originally posted this chapter on Fanfiction.net exactly on New Year's Eve. The first review I got for it called me sadistic and evil for that ending =P. Totally made my night.


	8. Leo

Ok…yeah…that was definitely not intentional.

Leo was more than a little worried and scared. From the way his head throbbed, he had no doubt that he had some kind of concussion, and it felt like a doozy. He needed something to focus on, and luckily there was a heated and interesting discussion going on not too far away.

It sounded like Percy had had a violent misunderstanding with one person…no surprise there, and nearly had a second right while Leo was listening in. At least It sounded like Annabeth had been able to diffuse the latter situation. He almost gave himself away with a snicker when he heard the name "Zuko," but managed to suppress the urge. What he really hadn't expected was the voice of a girl matter-of-factly outing him of his unconscious ruse. As best he could figure, the surprise combined with the tenuous hold he had over his abilities with a concussion had caused his self-ignition.

Now he was worried about stopping it. He usually didn't like to advertise his pyro abilities because they tended to make people a little nervous. Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag wherever we are now. He thought, ruefully. What others didn't realize was that it was a lot more difficult to put out a fire than to start one. Leo had only just managed to focus and begin reducing the flames when he found himself doused with ice-cold saltwater.

"Hey! What was that for!?" he sputtered at Percy, the obvious culprit. "You know you didn't need to do that!"

Percy only shook his head slowly and pointed to a pretty dark-skinned girl about ten feet away from him. She was frozen with her hand outstretched and an expression in the process of shifting from panic to confusion. Leo figured that the former had been due to his little self-immolation and the latter to his lack of injury from said lightshow.

If Leo himself hadn't been so embarrassed by the situation, he would've found the entire tableau in front of him quite hilarious. Piper and Jason had no such reservations; they were shaking with suppressed laughter. Frank and Hazel were watching him with a mix of worry and wariness. That hurt a little bit, but considering Frank's...condition, uncontrolled fire would be the last thing they wanted to be around. Percy looked a little surprised and maybe a little amused at his drenching, while Annabeth's disapproving look reminded him of one of his old teachers, or maybe Tia Callinda. All of the unfamiliar faces mirrored various levels of the dark-skinned girl's panic/surprise combination, save one.

A short girl in yellow and green caught his attention for multiple reasons. She was the only one that he didn't feel was looking directly at him, even though he couldn't see her eyes underneath her long black bangs. Her mouth, being the only expressive part of her he could see clearly, was quirked up at one side. It reminded him of how some of the Hermes cabin would look when they were scheming something. That half-thoughtful, half-amused expression was one he had been told appeared on his own face quite often when he was inventing.

Leo was broken out of his reverie by Annabeth's sharp tone. "Leo, what in Hades was that all about?"

Leo winced. "Hey, don't look at me like I meant to do that!"

She only raised her eyebrow in response.

Leo's voice took on a hurt tone. "I'm telling the truth! You should know me well enough to realize that wasn't normal behavior for me. Gods, I've never even gone full-body before!"

Jason chose that moment to murmur to Piper, just loud enough for Leo to hear, of course, "Flame on!" This set the both of them off into a fit of giggles, and elicited snorts from both Percy and Frank.

"That was your idea, Short Circuit, not mine." Said Leo, sourly.

"HOLD ON A SECOND! What just happened?" Clearly the dark-skinned boy in blue had had enough. "Your whole body was on FIRE, and your clothes aren't even singed! Even firebenders can be burned!" He said the last with a sympathetic apologetic wince at the scarred boy in red and gold next to him.

"Um…yeah. I really am sorry about that. It really wasn't intentional. My…heritage gives me a bit of an affinity for fire. Normally I can control it, but I think this concussion threw my system out of whack." The last he said while gingerly feeling the bandage around the back of his head, then something the boy had said struck him. "Wait…what's a firebender?"

The tall, scarred boy gave a small smirk and stepped forward, catching the eyes of several of the men and women around as he did so. Then Leo got one of the biggest shocks of his life. As if on cue, half a dozen people, including the scarred boy, suddenly had balls of fire suspended a few inches above their hands.

Leo's eyes bugged out and he barely stopped himself from catching fire a second time. His mind immediately jumped to the obvious conclusion: so much for Dad only giving the fire-thing to a child every few centuries. That thought only lasted a few seconds, however, as the ADHD Engineer side of Leo's mind took over. Even with this small display, he could see several differences between these people's fire generation and his own. First and foremost, the fire wasn't actually touching their skin. It was several inches away, as if they needed the insulation of the air. Second, there were far too many of them with far too similar ages, and his Dad had told him flat-out that it had been over a century since a fire-wielder had been born. This fact had been confirmed by both Chiron and Jason to Leo's satisfaction. Third, the tall boy had what was clearly a burn scar, and as his eyes flitted around, he saw several other similar, if less severe scars on those around him. Leo could not be harmed at all by fire, and so was led to the inescapable conclusion that their method of fire-manipulation was fundamentally different from his own.

It took little time for Leo's mind to process all of this, and he'd come to his final conclusion before the scarred boy had even had a chance to open his mouth. "We are firebenders. As you can see, we also have what you could call an affinity for fire, although I'd like to know how you managed to pull off that little trick of yours."

"Uhh…sure, you and me both. D'ya think that maybe we could do it without the crowd, though?" Leo said, playing up his nervousness as he looked around at the crowd of uniformed personnel surrounding them all.

The boy looked slightly taken aback at this rapid subject change. He glanced around at the small crowd and said with a smirk, "I think that can be arranged. Captain!" The last was said with kind yet firm authority to a middle-aged man with muttonchops.

Captain Muttonchops immediately began barking out his own orders, "You heard the Firelord. Back to your stations! I expect a full report from every respondent by the end of the day. DISMISSED!"

Leo watched in amazement as the crowd disappeared in less than a minute, leaving only the teens and Captain Muttonchops behind. O.K…so this guy's got some real authority around here…good to know.

"I am Firelord Zuko, firebender and leader of the Fire Nation. This is Sokka, a warrior and leader of the Southern Water Tribe. This is his sister, Katara, an accomplished Waterbender and healer. This is Toph Bei Fong, probably the most powerful Earthbender alive. And this is Aang, the Avatar and master of all elements. From what I've seen and heard so far, it's clear that you're not from around here. I think it's high time we had an exchange of information—preferably before we have any more…misunderstandings."


	9. Piper

A silent battle of wills was taking place between the demigods as they settled into what Piper liked to think of as a storytelling circle. Considering their personalities, such a battle was neither completely unexpected nor uncommon. What was strange about this one was between whom it was taking place. Annabeth and Hazel were staring each other down, nodding, shaking their heads, and making other small gestures.

Piper could see that Percy was following the silent argument as well, clearly torn about which side he wanted to land on. His face lit up with a sudden realization. Piper couldn't help imagining a light bulb popping on above his head.

"Captain," Percy said, "before we begin, do you think you could get a world map for us?"

The captain nodded and gave a hand signal to one of the crewmen remaining on deck. Annabeth was giving Percy a warily curious look, while Hazel was a picture of amazed gratitude.

A crewman came up with a rolled-up chart in his hand and handed it to the Captain, who handed it to Percy. Percy unrolled it in his hands so that Annabeth could see. Piper had never seen Annabeth's eyes bug out like that before. She watched as the blonde gulped and looked up at Hazel, giving a small nod.

Annabeth then turned her attention to the other five teens, who'd been watching the exchange with interest. "So," she said cautiously, most of her focus on the older boy that seemed in charge, "what do you know about Greece, Mr. Zuko?"

Leo let out a snort that quickly dissolved into a small fit of giggles, and Piper grinned. She knew exactly what had set the boy off, and if her read of Percy's quirked lips was right, he did as well.

The boy—Zuko—was thoroughly confused. "It's just Zuko, and what's gotten into him?"

Piper couldn't leave it alone for any longer. "I think he just made the mental connection of the name Zuko and the word Grease. Don't mind him; it's a cultural reference that we'll explain later." She ignored the confused glances the four demigods that didn't get the reference were throwing her.

Zuko blinked at her. "Ookaay. Sounds like a long story, and I am going to want that explanation later." The last he said with a small half-smile. Good, it looked like he had a halfway-decent sense of humor. "But in answer to your question—Annabeth was it?—the only grease I know of is the type used for cooking or to lubricate machinery."

They ignored Leo's redoubled giggles. "Ah, no…wrong kind of Greece. Greece is a country with a long ancient history. The Ancient Greeks had an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses to embody aspects of nature and their lives. The culture they developed has had massive impact on our culture today."

"Question," the dark boy—Sokka—interjected, "What are 'gods and goddesses'? The things you're talking about sound more like spirits."

"You don't know what gods are?" Jason asked, aghast. His reaction was understandable, considering he'd essentially been raised by the Roman Legion and had never really not known about the Gods.

Piper decided to intervene before anything bad came of this. "Calm down, Jason." She turned to address the boy known as Sokka, "I'm familiar with the 'spirits' you refer to. The Gods are a similar idea, but on a much grander scale. For instance, you may have a spirit of a specific lake, river, or forest, yes?" At the quintet's collective nod, she continued "Well, the Gods embody things greater than that, some physical and some abstract. Poseidon, for instance, is the god of the Seas, Storms, and Earthquakes; while Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty."

"Oh. So they're like Super-Spirits!" The boy said enthusiastically.

"Um…close enough, I guess." Said Annabeth, taking charge again. "Thank you for that, Piper. Anyway, those gods and goddesses…are real and still around today." She paused, awaiting the reaction she usually received when declaring this little nugget.

The others just stared at her for a few moments before the until-now silent bald boy spoke up. "Well, of course they are. I've met and conversed with a number of spirits, heck it's part of my job description. If the spirits are around, why shouldn't your super-spirit things be?"

"Um...okay, let's leave that one as it is for now and move on." Piper noticed that Frank and Hazel were now studying the tattooed boy with renewed curiosity. "Anyway, sometimes these gods and goddesses fall in love with a mortal, and sometimes children are born from these couplings. These children are called demigods. The seven of us are such demigods."

Now that elicited the right reaction. "Wait, you're saying you're half-spirits?" the boy called Sokka said incredulously. "How does that even work? Never mind, I don't want to think about it."

Zuko merely observed them with mild surprise and only mildly said, "Toph?"

The young girl in green and yellow piped up, "Oh, they're telling the truth alright. As much as I approve of anyone yanking Twinkletoes's over there's chain, they actually believe every word they're saying."

The eyes of all seven demigods snapped to the girl; even Leo was cut off in mid-snicker to stare at her in stunned silence. How had she been so certain of that? She hadn't looked like she'd even been listening, staring somewhere off to the side during the entire conversation. Piper looked more carefully at her under the girl's concealing bangs. She realized what had been off about the girl at the same time as Leo exclaimed, "Wait…you're blind!"

"Amazing powers of observation, Tinderbox. Yeah, I'm blind, what of it?" She shot back.

"I…just…um…" Leo, unable to answer the question trailed off into an embarrassed silence.

Toph just smirked, "I thought so. Back to the explanation now, sister!" The last she shot in Annabeth's direction.

Also clearly intrigued, Annabeth fought down her Athenian desire to question and continued. "Yes, as I said, we're all demigods. My mother was the goddess Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, Law, Righteous Warfare, Strategy and Skill. I inherited a good deal of my battle prowess from my mother, and she fell in love with my father for his intelligence and fascination with military strategy."

Percy quickly picked up the thread that Annabeth had left for him. "I'm a son of Poseidon, whom Piper already told you is the God of the Seas, Storms, and Earthquakes. I can control water, as Katie over there can attest to." Piper had to stop herself from facepalming. Percy had never been very good at names, and it looked like it was going to continue here. Zuko, Sokka, and the tattooed boy identified as Aang all had confused looks on their faces, while Katara was giving Percy an exasperated glare and Toph's mouth quirked up in amusement.

"Katara, Percy." Annabeth tiredly corrected as she massaged the bridge of her nose. Realization dawned on the three boys' faces.

"Katara, right. Yeah…I'm also guessing by the state of my clothes that you also saw that seawater heals me?" He directed his question to Katara, who nodded wide-eyed back at him. "Yeah, that was definitely a pleasant surprise for me the first time I found out. The storm thing I've only ever done in the middle of battle. I've made a whirlwind around myself when fighting a large number of enemies before, but it's very tiring. Earthquakes…yep, never caused one and never tried to. I'm pretty sure that's not one of the things I got from my dad."

Percy left things at that, although Piper knew he'd left out his absolute bearings at sea, his ability to control any sea vessel he was aboard perfectly and his ability to communicate with sea creatures and horses. It was good, after all, to hold some information in reserve.

Hazel took up the exposition next. "My father is Pluto, God of the Underworld and…other things found under the earth. I have some small control over groundwork and tunnels, and better control over precious metals and gemstones." Piper watched the shy girl speak and felt a pang of sympathy for her. Hazel had made great strides, but was still lacking in the confidence department.

Before anyone could question her, Frank protectively took the reins. "My father is Mars, God of War." He winced a bit. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Mars was more of a War-for-the-goal-of-Peace type of deity than one of carnage. I can use any type of weapon well with just a little practice…and Percy likes to tell me that I'm a good tactician." Percy nodded emphatically at this declaration, making Hazel smile. Frank had only mentioned what he'd received from his father's side and not his mother's. His shapeshifting would probably come out later, but he had not explicitly lied by keeping that information out. Well done. It looked like they were being careful of honesty levels with Little Miss Lie-Detector on hand.

Now it was Jason's turn, "My father is Jupiter, God of the Sky and Thunder. As such, I have control over the air and lightning." Boy had he left that empty, but technically all true. He'd left out his control over skybound creatures or the fact that he could actually fly. Heck, considering Percy's little laundry list from earlier, Jason was making himself sound completely wimpy.

Piper was broken out of her musings by an elbow to the side from Jason. Right, it was her turn. "My mother is Aphrodite. Like I said before, she's the Goddess of Love and Beauty. I didn't get much from her, as you might expect, but I've got a knack for being persuasive." She poured a trickle of Charmspeak into her statement to encourage them to believe her and leave it at that. Her Charmspeak was a distinct tactical advantage that could be neutralized easily, so she didn't want to give it away too early.

Leo had finished his study of the blind girl and was ready to finish off the round. "My father's Hephaestus, God of Blacksmiths, Craftsmen, Artisans, Fire and Volcanos. I can build and/or fix just about anything, and you've already seen my fire-creation and –immunity skills. And that's about it."

The others didn't seem to know what to make of all of this, but were saved from answering when a crewman tapped Zuko on the shoulder. "Sir, it's almost nightfall."

Piper watched as Zuko and Sokka's eyes widened and the two paled. "Thank you, Ensign, we were almost late!" Then the two spooked teens vaulted onto the giant fluffy flying monster, yelled "Yip Yip!" and took off eastward.

Felt completely lost as Toph began to laugh. Aang and Katara started to snicker not long after. Even the Captain had a small smile on his face.

The demigods exchanged glances, but no answer was forthcoming from the amused quartet. They were going to have to wait for their answer.


	10. Percy

Percy exchanged a confused look with Annabeth, but she was just as perplexed as he was. A quick look around to his fellow demigods showed similar states of confusion…with the exception of Leo, whose expression was more "where have I seen that before" than "WTF?"

Percy had to admit, Leo hadn't impressed him all that much at first. After all, his first real encounter with the guy had been when the Son of Hephaestus had demonstrated his goodwill to the massively-annoying and suspicious Octavian; showing the older boy around the Argo II and then opening fire on New Rome with its impressive weaponry. Ok, granted, that wasn't the kid's fault. He'd been taken over by an evil spirit at the time and had had no control over his actions. Percy knew exactly what that was like; after all, he and Jason had tried to kill each other for the same reason not long after. He mentally cringed a little at the memory; having no control over his own actions had NOT been a pleasant experience.

Then there was the whole awkwardness around Hazel, since Leo was the spitting image of his great-grandfather, whom Hazel had known—and had a crush on—at that age. This was also not his fault, but Percy couldn't really help that it had stuck with him.

Both of these things, plus his early behavior had given Percy the impression of a mechanically clever, but inept in the normal demigod areas boy who added a new definition to the term ADHD. Seriously, the kid would bounce from one thing to another faster than a superball. Just watching him drive the ship was like watching a Ping-Pong match. He was also an apt fighter, as all demigods kind of had to be, just not a very adept one.

As they'd traveled together, the ADHD impression was only solidified, but he'd begun to see a side of the kid that made him start to think that Leo was smart, not just machine-savant-smart, but seriously smart enough to give Annabeth a run for her money.

The boy in question turned towards Percy, the calculating look still on his face. As soon as the two locked eyes, however, his widened in realization, causing Percy's to narrow in suspicion. A huge guffaw erupted from him and was soon shaking in mirth.

Aaand then again, the kid could be seriously irritating. Percy's annoyance level had been steadily rising over the course of the day. He was on an unfamiliar ocean in an unfamiliar world; a thoroughly-disorienting sensation for the son of the sea god for whom the ocean had always been a source of solace. The fact that he'd figured out they were on a completely different world before Annabeth had only given marginal and temporary satisfaction. It had only lasted until he'd been listing the abilities he had as a Son of Poseidon where a quick and surreptitious poke to the small of his back had served as a firm warning to  _shut up!_  It had thrown him enough to lamely end on a pseudo-lie about never having caused an earthquake.  _Technically_  it had been an eruption…which wouldn't've happened if his little quake hadn't enabled Typhon to burst out. He had no idea why the little lie-detector girl hadn't called him out on it, which only set him even more on edge.

The rapid exit of the two older boys and the subsequent laughter of the three remaining teens had simply added to the confusion, but hadn't yet pushed him over the edge. No…the real icing on the cake was that  _he_  was now apparently at least partially the butt of said joke. He opened his mouth to snap at Leo for an explanation, but never got the chance.

The green lie-detector girl—Top or something like that—beat him to it. "What do you think  _you're_  laughing at, tinderbox?" She said sharply, pointing a firm and accusing finger.

Surprise at the outburst effectively silenced the entire circle. Leo blinked for a few seconds and then grinned sheepishly. "Well…I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure those guys' girlfriends are going to  _kill_  them."

Everyone froze for a moment in stunned silence, which was broken by a bark of laughter from the girl. "Hah! Got it in one, tinderbox! How'd you know?"

Percy had an inkling of what Leo's response was going to be and just closed his eyes in resignation…at least  _now_  it made sense. "I kinda recognized the looks on their faces, since I've seen it before on him." Leo said, jerking his thumb towards the older boy, who started massaging the bridge of his nose.

_Come on. I can't be the only one of us who's had that look…crap, I am. Hazel and Piper are both able fighters, but…somehow I can't see either of them judo-flipping Frank or Jason…although the former would be an interesting sight._  He mentally shook himself out of that idle train of thought. _Stupid ADHD, get back on track. Anyway, that flip_ was _the first time Leo, Piper, and Jason had ever seen him…_ sigh _first impressions and all that. Yup, gotta just suck this one up._

When he opened his eyes again from his musing, he saw that all of the other demigods were in agreement; each one had at least the ghost of a smile on their face, although Frank and Jason's at least had a sympathetic edge.

Percy felt it was high time he changed the subject. "Anyway, we've answered your questions, how about you return the favor? Like, what in Hades is a 'bender'? 'Cause I don't think it's the same thing as it is in our world."

The two sighted teens exchanged a glance and the bald boy—Angle was it?—was the one that ultimately answered. "Well…I've never really had to explain it to someone before, but from what you guys've said, I can see why you wouldn't know. Hmm…do you know what chi is?"

Frank spoke up. "It's an Asian concept. It's essentially the life-force or spiritual energy of a person, right? My grandmother used to like to lecture me about that kind of stuff all the time." He said in explanation.

Angle—that didn't sound quite right—nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's pretty much it, although I don't know what 'Asian' is. Anyway, benders have the ability to direct that chi outside of them to change the flow of a specific element. For Katara, it's Water; for Toph, it's Earth, although she's brilliant and also figured out how to bend metal." The girl in question flashed them with a self-satisfied smirk. "Zuko, as well as most of the other benders on this ship, is a Firebender. I'm…a bit of a special case."

"That's a bit of an understatement, Twinkletoes."

"Stop it, Toph." Interjected Katara, responding to the flush that had grown in the boy's cheeks. "Aang's the Avatar. The Avatar is born once in a generation to one of the four bending nations; Aang, for example, is an Air Nomad, and was therefore born among Airbenders. The next Avatar will be born in one of the Water Tribes, the next to the Earth Kingdom, and the one after that to the Fire Nation. That is the cycle of the Avatar."

"Really?" Said Hazel, clearly fascinated by the concept. "You said once in a Generation…is it a reincarnation kind of thing or can there be more than one Avatar at once?"

Aang looked at her in mild surprise. "Reincarnation. You guys believe in it? Not everyone here does. Even Sokka thinks that I'm a special case."

All seven demigods nodded, and Hazel replied. "Yes, we actually all know someone whose sister chose reincarnation after she died, and…well…I know more about post-death existence than most, considering who my father is."

All three benders looked supremely confused. "Um…did we miss something? What does your father have to do with anything?"

Hazel returned the look. "I said he was the God of the Underworld, I thought that it was obvious."

"Um…sorry, what's 'the Underworld'?" Katara replied.

All seven pairs of eyes bugged out at this question. "Ah…well…um…that explains the confusion." Hazel stammered out. "Simply put, the Underworld is where all souls, both good and bad, go after they die. Some call it the Land of the Dead. Evil souls go to the Fields of Punishment for eternity, neutral souls go to the Fields of Asphodel, and good souls go to the Paradise of Elysium. Souls in Elysium can choose to reincarnate and live again. Those that have earned Elysium three times become permanent residents of the Isle of the Blessed. There's a lot more complicated and unimportant details, but they're not really important right now."

"Indeed." Came the surprising response from the largely-silent Captain. Percy had almost forgotten he was there. "As fascinating and enlightening as this information-exchange has been, there has been one glaring omission on your part." All seven demigods looked back in mild confusion. "You seven weren't the only ones to come through that strange vortex."

_Huh? What's he talking about?_  Katara's face lit up in understanding. "Oh yeah! What was that animal thing that you and Leo were riding, Hazel? And where did it go? I've never seen anything quite like it before."

Realization dawned for Percy.  _Arion. She's talking about Arion. That's right; Hazel was astride him with Leo flopped in front of her when this whole thing started. But he just looks like a horse. They've never seen anything like a_ horse _before?_

"Um…that would be Arion. He's a horse, really the ultimate horse, since the others can't run on water…or at supersonic speeds, for that matter." Said Hazel. "As to where he went…I'm going to guess he ran off to do his own thing. He does that; he's a very free spirit and should not be bound. He's a pretty gentle soul and won't hurt anyone out there."

Percy snorted at that one. Hazel wouldn't say that if she actually  _heard_  some of the things that horse said.

"Ok…he won't go out of his way to hurt anyone, but he hates being caged and I can't vouchsafe for anyone who tries."

"I…see." Said the Captain. "Could you possibly make him come here so that we can confirm at least some of what you say?"

She shot a quick glance of askance at Percy. "Um…maybe. He likes me, but there's no guarantee that he'll come, or that he's even close enough to hear." Her face brightened. "Hey Percy…think you could put your New Yorker skills to good use?"

A slow grin spread across Percy's face.  _Nice cover._ "Sure, although the rest of you might want to plug your ears." He raised his right hand to his lips and stuck his finger and thumb into his mouth and let loose with his best eardrum-piercing cab-whistle while simultaneously mentally yelling,  _Hey, Arion, get your horse's ass back here!_

He felt a faint and reluctant mental acknowledgement in response and smiled at the wincing people around him. "That should've done the trick, if anything." Yep, his mood was definitely improving.


	11. Jason

_Ow. Seriously….ow._  Jason shook his head in a futile attempt to remove the ringing in his ears. He hadn't caught onto what Hazel and Jackson were planning quite fast enough to plug his ears in time.  _Great Jupiter!_ That had been painful. He was only slightly mollified to see that he was far from the only one in that situation. In fact, the only ones besides the perpetrator largely unaffected by the noise seemed to be Leo, Hazel, the Captain, and the Air-Avatar Kid, Aang. Not even Annabeth had escaped it, even though she'd clapped her hands over her ears almost instantly; apparently proximity beat protection this time.  _Oh, she's gonna make him pay for that later._

" _WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT!?"_

Then you had the other end of the spectrum.  _Well, they do say that you're other senses are heightened when you're blind._  Jason thought, as the girl Toph leapt to her feet and stood facing Percy with open hostility.

"You've never heard anyone whistle before?" Percy replied, the very picture of innocence.

"YOU KNOW  _DAMN_  WELL WHAT I MEAN!" She shouted back, stomping her foot angrily. There was a faint rumble from the other side of the large building on deck and the bald boy was at her side in an instant, laying a calming hand on her shoulder. "Stupid wood" she muttered, kicking the deck as she heeded his unspoken warning. The last comment elicited a number of confused looks from the demigods.

Percy, for his part, seemed to have come to the same conclusion about Toph's senses as Jason had and was sheepishly rubbing the back of his shaggy head. "I  _am_  sorry. I just thought it would be a bit funny; I didn't take your more sensitive hearing into account. I haven't exactly gotten a lot of sleep lately."

Jason winced a little at that last statement. He'd almost forgotten that Percy and Annabeth had just spent a month in Tartarus—definitely far from restful—and then had come out directly into battle. Hell, the last time the guy'd slept must have been  _in_ Tartarus—unconscious and almost dying from a poisoned wound didn't count. Annabeth's exhaustion was obvious in her posture, while only the bags under his eyes supported Percy's claim. Jason suspected Percy was still enjoying the after-effects of the oceanic adrenaline-shot he'd gotten earlier; he'd crash sooner or later, and when he did, he'd crash hard.

Percy's attempt to mollify Toph had little to no effect. She sat on the deck and glowered in his general direction. The silence was decidedly awkward and tense; Aang and Katara were watching the small girl warily. Suddenly Katara's face lit up. "Hey Aang. We haven't really sparred in a while, at least not like we used to. Think these guys would like to see a little bending?"

"Why would—?" the bald kid began, and then realization dawned on his face, "Yeah, sure! That sounds like a great idea, Katara! Toph, ready for a three-way brawl?"

The effect was profound and immediate; the girl's face shone with a sort of manic glee. "You know it!" Jason saw the smile on her face turn conniving as she stood up and began heading around the building in the center of the ship. "C'mon, slowpokes. I don't care  _what_  you are, you ain't gonna want to miss this!"

Jason found himself scrambling to get up and follow the small spitfire. A quick glance around showed him the other demigods in a similar state. He, Piper, Frank, and Hazel were the quickest to rise, while Percy lent his supporting shoulder to Annabeth and Leo pulled himself up with the ship's railing, silently refusing offers of assistance. The Captain excused himself and Aang and Katara waited behind for their guests to get themselves together before leading the way in Toph's wake. Jason was painfully aware of the fact that their path gave the demigods' confiscated weapons a wide berth. He missed  _Ivlivs_ , his magical spear/sword/coin that always returned to his pocket, much like Percy's Riptide. He hated seeing the  _gladius_  that Juno had given him go out of his sight as they rounded the corner. He was also a bit surprised when he notices a surprising number of crewmembers making their way in the opposite direction. It was as if they were escaping the area of the ship the teens were all headed. He didn't know whether to be excited or disconcerted by the exodus.

"Holy crap!" Leo's exclamation broke him out of his musings, "That thing is HUGE. How far down does it go?"

_This from the guy who put_ stables  _on his giant flying Greek warship and flew us halfway across the country on a bronze dragon? I'm not sure I want to know what's got him so excited._  Jason had taken it upon himself to bring up the rear of the group since Percy was busy supporting Annabeth; a decision he was regretting as he heard other incredulous gasps from the demigods ahead of him. When he rounded the corner, it was quite easy to understand their reaction.

In what he now realized must have been the middle of the absolutely  _massive_  ship was a huge expanse of stone. It extended the full 70-ish feet from port to starboard on the ship and was about 30 feet across. The railings on the ship's sides around the slab were hastily being removed by a few nervous-looking crewmen; anyone that reached the edge would fall into the ocean.

Toph stood in the middle of the slab with an enormous grin on her face. Suddenly, she brought her arms together in front of her and stomped. Jason couldn't suppress a brief yell of surprise when a slab of rock, six inches thick and a little taller than she shot up out of the ground. "That answer your question, matchstick?"

Jason heard Leo gulp, clearly trying to process what he'd just seen…or so Jason thought. "You mean they put a 300-tonne rock in the middle of their ship? Just for you to play with?"  _Of course…he's still caught up in the mechanics and design of the damned ship. Sometimes I forget he's a child of Hephaestus._

"Yup!" She replied, happily, returning the summoned rock into the giant slab with a heel flick and no visible seam. He found the girl's "bending" a bit worrying. The only one he'd ever known to have that kind of control over stone was Gaea…and even she hadn't displayed this kind of speed. If all was what it seemed, this girl could truly be formidable.

"This is all solid rock?" Percy asked, gingerly stepping onto the surface. "How'd you get it—?" The rest of his sentence was broken off as a flick of an ankle and a malicious half-smile from Toph caused the ground to move quickly enough out from under his feet to knock him backwards. Only his demigod battle-reflexes kept the wind from getting knocked out of him as he threw his arms backwards to painfully break his fall. "Ow! What in Hades was that for?"

"That," she said, with a self-satisfied smirk, "was payback. Now we're even Fish-for-brains."

Jason snorted and heard several others do the same, Annabeth was openly snickering and giving her boyfriend a look that said, "Oh yeah, totally deserved." Even Aang and Katara were smiling at the exchange, although Katara was also throwing a slightly disapproving look Toph's way.

Percy, for his part, couldn't maintain a glare at the girl for more than a few seconds before sheepishly smiling and agreeing, "Yeah…I guess I did deserve that. So…um, think you could give me a push up? My arms are a little stunned from breaking my fall."

Toph seemed to contemplate this request for a moment before replying, "Eh, sure." and with a smooth gesture of her hand, a section of stone came up between Percy's shoulder blades and gently pushed him upright. Jason winced a little in sympathy at the angry scrapes on the dark-haired boy's forearms.

"Thanks," he said, working the shock out of his joints, "but if it's all the same to you, I'm going to go back to the less solid, but less volatile wood over by my girlfriend. I'm really starting to dislike earth…" The last bit delivered as an annoyed mutter. Jason couldn't really blame him. After all, they'd been in a war with Mother Earth for the better part of a year; a war that had caused him to be torn away from the people that he loved and have his memory wiped. True, Jason's memory had been wiped as well, but he'd had neither family nor love back at Camp Jupiter, no matter Reyna's interest. In point of fact, he'd actually  _found_  both as a result.

"Here, let me." Katara said, gracefully floating water out of a skin on her side as she moved towards the grumbling boy. Percy gave her a curious look. "I have healing abilities…remember, I was trying to heal that big gash in your side before your friend there suggested chucking you in the ocean."

Hazel gave an indignant squawk at the same time Percy exclaimed, "She said WHAT?!"

"Hey now," Hazel finding words quickly after the initial surprise, "I said 'put' not 'chuck'. Don't go putting words in my mouth."

"Aww. And here I thought you'd developed a sense of humor." Came Percy's needling reply.

She glared at him half-heartedly for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Anyway, she's not making it up. I'm not sure how, but she was using water to try to heal you before, Polybotes poison was just working against her."

Percy, completely trusting Hazel's judgment nodded to Katara. "Alright, let's see what your healing hands can do."

All seven, even Hazel, watched as she enveloped her hands in the water she'd been floating. Percy tensed a little when the water began to glow with a soft blue light, but relaxed immediately in relief as it made contact with his injured skin. "Ok…screw ambrosia and unicorn draught, I'm going glowy-water healing from now on."

Katara raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Good luck with that…but thanks for the compliment." The glow subsided and she moved her hands away from the now-mended flesh; the watching demigods released a collective breath they hadn't realized they were holding.

"How…how does it feel now?" Leo asked tentatively.

"Great! Just like new!" Percy replied, rolling his shoulders and flexing his elbows to demonstrate. He then turned back towards the benders with an eager grin and said, "Now how about that bending brawl we were promised?"

Katara's eyes took on a mischievous glint, "Oh, I agree. Let's get down to business." On the last word, she executed a pivoted twist that would've made a discus thrower jealous, causing a spout of water to rise from the ocean and rush towards the small girl still standing in the middle of what was now clearly an arena.

At the last second, a wedge of rock shot up, sending the water to either side of the still-dry and manically-grinning Earthbender. "Nice try, Sweetness, but you're gonna need to do a lot better than that!" Within seconds, the arena became a pandemonium of flying rock and splashing water.

"Fair warning," Aang, who'd just materialized in front of the mesmerized demigods, said, "Bending is not the safest thing to be a spectator for." As if on cue, a 2-foot-diameter rock came flying at the boy's head, which he deflected over the side of the ship with a perfectly-executed tornado-kick. "See what I mean? So keep alert—"

"Hey, Twinkletoes, ya gonna jabber all day? Get your airy butt in here!" An earthen hand shot out to grab the boy around his waist, which he neatly evaded with a 10-foot jump…only to be caught full-on in the face by a water jet, effectively knocking him into the mayhem.

Jason didn't know much about this bending stuff, but he knew combat, and it was obvious that these three were very skilled warriors. Thanks to his heritage, he had complete control over wind and air, but he'd never really thought to use it as a  _primary_ weapon. He'd never thought to use it to maneuver like the kid Aang was, either. It had always been sort of an on-the-side kind of thing…but to see it used so effectively and creatively…Jason was agog. A glance to the side revealed similar reaction from Percy, whose eyes were almost bugging out of his head as he watched Katara use a stream of water to slice a boulder in half like a piece of cheese. As he watched, Percy's head cocked a little to the side and his eyes seemed to unfocus; he appeared to ponder something for a moment, absently nod once in affirmation, and then wince before returning his attention back to the brawl.

_What was that all about? That's that look he gets when he's talking to—OH! Heh…so much for seeing Arion. Looks like he decided he didn't want to come into this carnage…and judging by that wince, he was his usual eloquent self about it._  He thought as he turned back to spectating with a small smirk on his face.

He didn't even notice when Zuko and Sokka returned…not until there was suddenly a great deal more fire added to the fray. The combustion served as enough of a surprise that his battle instincts kicked back in and put him immediately on the alert, rapidly checking his surroundings.

"Hmm…Zuko said you guys looked like fighters…guess that proves it." A bored-sounding near-monotone said behind him, causing him to whip around and fall into a defensive crouch. Sokka and a pretty girl about their age were nearly doubled over giggling with Piper was standing right next to them, facepalming at him. A Goth-looking girl in a long flowing pantsuit and a giant hairdo stood in front of the trio and quirked her eyebrow at him. "My, aren't we jumpy?"

He straightened, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, you kind of surprised me. I take it you two ladies are the ones that Sokka and Zuko zipped out of here like a Hellhound on Red Bull was on chasing them to retrieve?"

"Well, I don't know about the other things," The previously-laughing girl with her arm around Sokka's shoulders replied with a grin, "but yep, that's us! I'm Suki, and this is Mai."

Jason shook their proffered hands. "Jason," when they both nodded, he winced and added, "Or did Piper introduce you to all of us while I was absorbed in the free-for-all?"

"Nah, Zuko's just good at descriptions…as long as Sokka doesn't help."

"Hey! That's not fair!" protested the object of the jibe.

She put a placating hand on his chest. "Ok, ok, you're descriptions are fine…as long as you don't try to draw them."

The result was a hurt glare from him and an unabashed grin from her lasting for several seconds. She then took the initiative and broke the standoff by giving him a quick kiss. Ignoring Mai's eyeroll at their antics, she turned to Jason and said. "So, what about that sparring match fascinates you so much, especially so much more than your friends?"

A little surprised, Jason checked on the other demigods to see that she was definitely not exaggerating about their lack of attentiveness. Leo was deep in an avid conversation with the Captain and a man that had the grimy look he'd come to associate with an engineer. Frank looked like he was trying to convince Hazel of something, judging by the gestures, it had something to do with the benders. Percy and Annabeth were leaning together, fast asleep; Jason had been right about him crashing. "Well, can't really speak for the others, but I find you can tell a lot about someone by the way they fight."

Mai's eyebrows rose slightly and Sokka and Suki half-smiled in pleased surprise. "And what does watching them tell you?"

"Well…" Jason said carefully, "I think my companions and I had some phenomenal luck in the first people we encountered in this world."

Sokka's chest puffed out. "Aww, you're just flattering us."

"No, I really do mean it. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that you've all been through a number of battles, both large-scale and skirmishes. Considering your ages and the fact that you're still here tells me you came out on top of those battles."

"But how do you know that's a good thing for you? Those with power are rarely the good guys." Suki challenged.

Jason smiled sourly, thinking of Octavian, "Oh, don't I know it, but I noticed something else. While I'm clearly no expert in your 'bending' disciplines, I can still see that the moves and attacks they are using are brutal, but nonlethal. I realize that this is just a sparring match, but in my experience, you still practice your lethal moves when you spar. Every single potentially lethal move they use is one that can be easily changed into a still-effective nonlethal one. In my experience, that kind of mercy is rarely seen in bad-guy training."

Sokka's face took on a pensive look, "Hmm…well said."

Suddenly Piper chipped in, "Plus, even though Aang warned us that being a spectator to benders was dangerous, nothing more than a little gravel or a light splash has come our way. They're going out of their way to minimize the collateral damage."

"Wow, you guys must be veterans of a lot of battles, too." Said Suki.

"Yeah…I'd say that's an understate—" his word was cut off by a yawn. "I think Percy and Annabeth might have the right idea. It's been a long day for all of us, and I don't know when those two last slept. I hate to impose on you guys, but…"

"Not a problem," responded Mai, "the ship's still pretty undermanned, so there should be plenty of spare bunks. Now we just have to end the knucklehead melee." She gave the melee in question an appraising look as she folded her arms, tucking her arms in her wide sleeves as she did so.

"Do you want the honors, or shall I?" said Suki with a smirk.

"My way's faster and has fewer annoying after-effects." Her arms shot out at lightning speed; four throwing daggers flying from each hand, each landing directly next to a foot of one of the benders. The four froze and Jason had to work hard to not echo the gulp he heard from Piper. "We're tired and going to bed." she stated simply.

Twenty seconds of cleanup, a few orders to crewmen, and a groggy moving of Percy and Annabeth later, the demigods found themselves in a surprisingly well-appointed barracks. Leo initially insisted on staying awake due to his concussion, but a brief round of healing-water later, he joined most of the other demigods in sleep within a few minutes. Jason stared at the ceiling as he drifted off, feeling much better about the situation that they'd found themselves in than he had a few hours ago, and hoping that nothing terrible was happening in their absence.


	12. Nico

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little jog over to what's happening back on Earth. Some foreign language cussing warnings here.

The skinny body slammed into the crumbling pillar.

"WHAT THE CAZZO WAS THAT?" *SLAM* "WHAT DID YOU DO?" *SLAM* "WHERE DID YOU SEND THEM?" *SLAM*

The surrounding demigods were at a loss of how to handle the enraged Son of Hades. He was surrounded by dancing solid shadows, two of which were slamming the barely-conscious Octavian against various pieces of ancient stonework. A few of the braver observers were dodging shadows to try to reach and calm down the furious teen, but none of their hearts were really in it….it was Octavian, after all.

"Y'know…" a drawling voice cut through the mayhem causing the surrounding demigods to turn and drop into defensive crouches. Even Nico paused in his punishment of Octavian, to turn his glare on the newcomer. "In my experience, head trauma rarely leads to coherent, much less truthful, answers." Apollo grinned wryly at the Son of Hades from his lounging perch atop one of the more intact pillars. "On principle, I object to such treatment of one of my descendants…but even I'm having hard time putting much effort into defending that little prick."

Nico's eyes narrowed, "Oh? So what do you propose I do?" His voice was calm and reasonable, as if he were simply discussing the weather; a disturbing contrast to the bellowing from a moment before. The limply-dangling Octavian only added to the eye-of-the-storm feel of the moment.

Apollo gave him a measured look that reminded Nico that the god was more than the hot-rod-sun-chariot driving, iPod-listening, terrible-haiku reciting flake he'd seemed when they'd first met. This was one of the main twelve Olympian gods; one who'd proven his serious and ruthless side many times over in battles. This was not a god to be trifled with, no matter how furious Nico was at his descendant. Apollo seemed to sense Nico's progress in leashing, or at least channeling, his fury. "Good. Now, you're a clever boy. How do you think you could find out what you want to know?"

"Until this one regains consciousness?" He emphasized his query with a rough shake of the boy in question. "Do you know where he sent them?"

"No, but how do you know he sent them anywhere? It sure looked like the ground sucked them up. How do you know they're not dead and buried?"

Nico waved a dismissive hand, his ire now channeled to kick his brain into overdrive to solve the problem at hand. "Nah, I would've sensed if they were dead. He sent them somewhere, whether it was into a cave down with Gaea or wherever, they're still alive…hmm…"

"That looked like some kind of spell—" Piped up Connor Stoll. "—maybe we can ask Lou Ellen about it." Finished his brother, Travis. A new recruit from the Hermes cabin rushed off to find the Hecate counselor at Nico's agreeing nod.

"Ordinarily I would suggest an augury, but considering our augur is currently out of commission…" contributed Reyna, looking thoughtfully at the dangling Octavian. She then squared her shoulders and turned to address the nearby Roman demigods, "Speaking of which, he needs to be dealt with. He is Centurion of the First Cohort and has committed treason against at least two Praetors. It is a Roman crime and he must face Roman Justice."

Nico glared dangerously at the lone Praetor of the Twelfth Legion. "What exactly are you saying?"

She looked him directly and the eye and declared. "I am saying that he should be remanded into the custody of the Twelfth Legion. The Third Cohort will…handle…him until he is tried." She lowered her voice so that only the nearest demigods, including Nico, could hear and smiled wolfishly. "Fear not, Roman Justice is not kind and does not suffer traitors and cowards well. You can have whatever's left of him afterwards."

Nico was partially mollified by this, but was still eyeing her distrustfully, at least until the Centurion of the Third Cohort approached. "DiAngelo, we were never truly formally introduced. Do you know who my godly parent is?" Nico's eyes flicked to the burly boy's tattoo, which depicted a crossed spear and cornucopia above his five service stripes. "I am James, son of Honos, God of Honor." Nico met the boy's hard and uncompromising eyes as he continued in an undertone, "I think you can imagine how I feel about dishonorable cowards."

"And you have to admit," Reyna put in in the same undertone, "Handing him over would be a massive Greek/Roman good faith gesture. We're all here together from your unification efforts, anyway."

Nico nodded slowly as he processed their words and willed the shadows to lower Octavian into the waiting hands of a few of the Third Cohort legionnaires. "Fair enough, we have more important things to do anyway. Will you let me know when he's coherent again? I'd at least like to witness the interrogation."

After a long measuring look at Nico and a small approving nod from his Praetor, James said, "That could be arranged, but I ask that you keep your temper in check. He will still be in my custody."

"I can accept that, now let's figure out what the—I'll use our resident God's term for him—little prick did."


	13. Annabeth

Annabeth woke slowly from a long and mercifully-dreamless sleep. It felt like centuries since she'd been able to truly sleep, and the plain military-style bunk felt like a plush four-poster compared to the hellish places she and Percy had had available over the past month. She lay silently in the bed for a long moment, mulling over the events of the last—was it really only a day, or had she slept much longer than that? Speaking of the last month, she was rather surprised, and more than a little concerned, that she'd fallen asleep so easily and deeply. In Tartarus, sleep had been a rare luxury, survival dictating quick naps rarely lasting more than two hours-two small hours in a never-ending torment of chaos. She almost had to thank Hera for putting Percy through what she did to get to Camp Jupiter; the entire ordeal had certainly sharpened his survival instincts to a razor-edge. Hers had been honed over the last month as well, but she was unsure they'd have been able to survive if both of them had had to develop those from scratch.

No matter the timing, she'd learned to trust those instincts, and Percy's even more, which was exactly why the fact that she and Percy had dropped off so easily was so disturbing to the analytical side of her mind. Despite a raging "sparring match" with flying debris not twenty feet from her face, she'd felt safe and secure enough to drift into a fairly deep sleep. She hadn't even fully woken up when they'd relocated to the barracks room they were in now—just letting Percy guide her into a bed before everything faded to black, and even now the feeling of security was intact. What could cause that? her inner-Athenian tactician asked, poking and prodding that feeling for any evidence of outside influence. Was I drugged? I don't think so; neither of us ate or drank anything and those always seem to have some mind-muddying side-effects, and I don't feel dulled. A spell, maybe? Those usually have some residual feel, and it's usually the instinctive side that saves Percy or me from those and not the other way around. In the end, the daughter of Athena decided that it would be best to follow her instincts, but allow the analytical side to take in and process everything just in case.

She turned her full attention to her surroundings, and heard no other sounds around her other than the faint, rhythmic creaking of the ship. I guess that means I'm the last one up. A scan around as she stretched confirmed her suspicions; she was quite alone in the room. The only thing betraying that there'd ever been anyone else were the three cots in various states of disarray. Wait—three? Where are the other—oh, I guess the Legion got them in the habit of making their bunks, her mouth quirked up in a small smile, Maybe Percy should've stayed with them a little longer. Her smile grew as she noticed a piece of—parchment?—hanging from the foot of the unmade cot directly across from her. "SOHRESW" was written in big block-letters along the top with an arrow to the left underneath, and underneath that a sketch of a stick-figure underneath a cone of dotted lines. Bless Percy, he knew exactly what she wanted, and the garbling caused by the double-dyslexia helped serve as a point of amusement.

Twenty minutes later, a clean and refreshed Annabeth clad in a surprisingly-comfortable set of black and dark red clothes that had been left out for her. The sun was fairly high in the sky—indicating either late-morning or early-afternoon. Percy and Jason were sparring—swords only—on the now-pristine surface of the stone slab that had been the venue for the chaos the previous night, the Indian-looking boy—Sokka, if memory served—watching with rapt attention.

"There she is!" came Piper's voice from the immediate right, "It's about time you decided to join us, Sleepyhead!" Turning, Annabeth saw the owner of the voice sitting at a small table with two other young women. They were only vaguely familiar…maybe she'd seen them as she'd been heading to bed last night?

"Morning, Piper, Katara—or is it afternoon?" She responded with a friendly smile, moving to take the empty seat.

"Ha! Don't worry, Goldie, it's still morning. You weren't out of it that long, although I'm glad you seem to have found the showers," a semi-mocking half-smile twisting the daughter of Aphrodite's mouth, "It was almost hard to get to sleep last night with the funk of you two—they may need to ask Jason to help air the place out."

"I thought that you'd have learned that mouth of yours just gets you into trouble." Annabeth shot back, leveling an annoyed glare at the girl. "Are you going to keep digging, or are you going to introduce me." She asked, gesturing towards the two unfamiliar women.

"Ah," piped up one of the new faces, "I think I can take care of that. I'm Suki, and this is Mai," she said happily, pointing towards the bored-looking girl in dark clothing and elaborately-coiffed black hair.

"I take it you're the two that Sokka and Zuko rushed off to pick up? Let me guess, Zuko with Mai and Sokka with Suki?"

"Yup," said Suki with a grin, "got it in one."

"So," Annabeth said, deciding just how to phrase what she wanted to know, "I can't help but notice the return of some of our…armaments." She shot a pointed glance at Katoptris on Piper's belt, followed by a quick glance to Piper, herself. She had her own suspicions as to how these people had been convinced to rearm the demigods.

"Don't look at me," said Piper, "I had nothing to do with it. As far as I know it was Frank and Hazel's doing."

Annabeth's eyebrows were doing their best to disappear into her bangs. "What? How?"

Mai shrugged, "They made a completely logical argument, and besides, it's not as if the rest of us aren't perfectly capable of defending ourselves."

"What kind of argument?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

Mai only shrugged again, "Ask them, I don't feel like repeating it."

"Right…" said Annabeth somewhat uncertainly, "speaking of which, where is the rest of the party?"

"Well," said Suki, "Zuko and Aang went back to continue the political negotiations they were in the middle of when you guys arrived. Toph dragged the big guy and the dark girl along to show them around Omashu—something about wanting to show the girl the 'awesome stuff Earthbending can do'. That Leo kid is down in the engine room, happier than Momo in a cave crawler nest, and Katara's…um…in her cabin. She's not feeling very well at the moment."

"I see." The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. "So…do I get my sword back in this whole re-armament thing?"

"Was wondering when you were going to ask," said Mai, withdrawing the now-familiar ivory sheen of Annabeth's Drakon-bone sword from the depths of one of her wide sleeves, "Here you go."

For a moment, Annabeth thought the girl was shrugging again, but the shrug seemed to take on a life of its own that riveted the daughter of Athena's attention. Both demigods jerked back in surprise when a small red snout poked out from underneath the girl's collar.

Suki laughed, but Mai pretended to ignore her reaction and turned her attention to the small serpentine body emerging from under her clothing. "Finally decided to wake up, Fang? Good, you can get out of there and meet the newcomers." The creature, which seemed to be a tiny, bearded version of a drakon, blinked blearily at Mai before turning to the two demigods and letting out an absolutely adorable squeak of greeting.

"W-w-what," stammered out Piper, "is that?"

"Fang's a dragon," said Suki. "I know, I know. They're supposed to be extinct; Zuko's uncle supposedly killed the last dragon blah, blah, blah," she continued, misinterpreting the reason for the incredulous expressions, "Yeah…that story's not exactly true. I don't know all the details, but I know that at some point Zuko and Aang went somewhere and apparently met the Ancient Sun Warriors, who'd been living in secret for centuries. It wasn't until Zuko's coronation that anyone else knew they still existed, when one showed up and presented the new Firelord with a dragon egg. Fang hatched a few days later."

"How old is he?" asked Piper, "How big will he get when he's grown?"

"A little less than a month," responded Mai, her tone clearly conveying that a fair chunk of the responsibility for caring for the infant creature had fallen on her shoulders, "but from what I've heard, he should grow big enough to carry a half-dozen people comfortably."

"About a hundred years ago, the riding of dragons by some of the more prestigious members of the Fire Nation was rather commonpl—" Annabeth stuck her hand out to interrupt Suki's admittedly interesting history lesson.

"Hey! What's up water boy?" Sokka's voice carried across the deck in the sudden absence of clashing Celestial Bronze. Percy was standing stock-still, free hand palm-out towards Jason and eyes scanning his surroundings.

What was wrong? What was it? Annabeth's brain kicked into overdrive trying to identify what had triggered her fight-or-flight response—THERE! The water lapping against the side of the ship had changed its rhythm.

"BELOW!" Yelled Percy a half second before a score of people jumped out of the ocean on either side of the ship to land on the deck, all poised for a fight.

"Friends of yours?" asked Annabeth, gripping her sword.


	14. Toph

"This place is amazing! Just look at these buildings and architecture! Annabeth'd love this."

Toph smirked with satisfaction at the awe in Hazel's voice. While she wasn't one to really give much of a crap about the beauty of architecture, she did love that just about everything was made of stone. That, plus the fact that her favorite brawling partner was the King made Omashu by far her favorite Earth Kingdom city.

"Yeah, talk about a great combination of form and function. The Legion's engineers could learn a thing or two from these people." Snorted Frank. "Romans might be good at rapid-built fortifications, but creature comforts have never been a priority. This place was designed with an incredible tactical advantage while still being a place you'd want to live. You said that it was actually conquered for a while by the Fire Nation, though…how'd they manage it?"

Toph could sense his rising excitement as he spoke; his respiration and pulse increasing and his voice pitch rising ever-so-slightly. She idly wondered if he had what she heard others describe as a "gleam in his eye." She'd never quite understood that term, but she'd come to associate it with Sokka on one of his inventive kicks. She smiled a little to herself at the comparison, but shrugged in answer. "Dunno for sure; didn't really care. Something about extendable metal bridges and King Bumi surrendering immediately."

"What?" said Hazel incredulously, "He immediately surrendered such an incredibly defensible position? Why in the name of the Gods would he do that?"

Toph grinned back at her, "'Cause he was a crafty old bastard who cared about his people, that's why."

As Hazel sputtered, Frank began to chuckle. "Let me guess…not a drop of blood spilled?" When Toph nodded in answer, he continued. "He waited until the exact right time when he had the advantage to retake the city with a minimum amount of bloodshed, didn't he? Hehe, crafty old bastard, indeed."

"What's that phrase about old age and treachery—?" asked Hazel, slyly.

"—always beats youth and skill." Finished Frank.

"Hah!" Toph barked out, "Never heard that one before, but Bumi's only missing the 'youth' bit of those four. He's pretty damn powerful; he's the only Earthbender I've met who can hold his own against me."

"Really? I had no idea you were that powerful—hey hey!" He cut himself off in response to her annoyed shift in stance, "Don't get me wrong, it was pretty damn cool to watch you spar with the others last night, but it's not like we have anything for comparison when it comes to your 'bendings.'"

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a bit mollified by his honest reply, but she felt a demonstration was in order, and luckily they'd come to a place in the city just perfect for it. "Hn, then let me educate you a bit in the art of Earthbending. Omashu was founded by the first human Earthbenders, and since that time, not one single Earthbender has ever been able to bend metal." She exchanged waves with the city construction workers assigned to removing the remnants of the Fire Nation "modifications" to the city. She knelt down and rapped her knuckles on the slab of iron pavement in front of her before turning a semi-manic grin back on the pair of tourists. "Until me, that is." She reached out with both hands and pulled, causing the surrounding metal to crumple into her hands, and then lifted the slab of iron and threw it into the stone garbage skiff placed exactly for that purpose fifty feet away.

She repeated the process with the four additional slabs before stopping for a break and returning to her stunned and sputtering guests. "But…but…those must've weighed more than a ton each! And you're saying you did that all with your 'bending?'" Hazel said with amazement and perhaps a bit of hope in her voice.

"Well, yeah…not like I could've done that with my muscles." Toph said, thinking it had been a bit of a stupid question. "But, since I'm the only one in the world who can do it, I lend a hand in the post Fire Nation Occupation cleanup when I'm in town. It's not the most fun use of my abilities, but at least I'm on solid Earth for the day rather than a ship in the middle of the ocean."

The girl snorted, following Toph away from the construction site. "Heh, I can definitely agree with that one. I hate boats. Was that all they had for you?"

Toph was liking this girl more and more. "Yeah, I was here a good chunk of yesterday before we had to head back to the ship in a hurry." She sensed the wince and guilty increase in heart rate that her casual comment brought in the pair. "Eh, don't worry about it. You guys are all right, and you sure helped stave off the boredom."

"You sure you're blind?" Asked Frank, a shrewd edge to his voice. "Daredevil's the only one I've ever heard of—," he broke off suddenly, his body suddenly tense, "Hazel. I'm getting that feeling."

Hazel, too had tensed and her hand had moved to the hilt of the sword at her belt, "Yeah, me too."

Toph was more than a little confused; what had these two picked up on? "What're you two—hey!" Frank had pulled her to the side, causing a rock to narrowly miss her head before hitting the ground a few feet away. How the hell had that happened? Nobody snuck up on her, especially not in this city of stone, and this time no fewer than a dozen people had just done exactly that. She could sense them now, apparently whatever they'd done to mask their approach had ceased. She had to figure out how they'd done that, but for now, it was time to FIGHT.

"Take cover!" she yelled at the two with her while lobbing boulders at four of their attackers. She had no idea of their fighting prowess and wanted to protect them from the flying boulders.

The two were not the best at taking directions. Hazel's sword was drawn and clashing with the weapons of one of their assailants before Toph could even finish her sentence. Frank's feet left the ground, launching him towards one of the walls. Toph's heart almost skipped a beat when she didn't hear him hit or land, instead what sounded like a giant cat hit the wall where the boy should have, and then launched itself powerfully between the two buildings until it landed on one of the men on the roof with a feral growl.

"Hazel, what the hell is that thing?" Toph yelled at the only person in the vicinity who might be able to answer her question while deflecting three and sidestepping another boulder flying in her direction.

"A panther, don't worry, he's on our side." She responded, grunting with the effort of staving off a pair of hammers. Then as an afterthought, she added. "Please try not to hit him."

Even in the heat of battle, Toph could tell the girl was telling the truth, and not the kind to look a gift horse in the mouth—another phrase she didn't quite get—continued in her onslaught.

Several minutes of heated battle later, and their position had not improved. The giant cat-thing was keeping the rooftop attackers busy, but a Firebender had joined the fight and was making things interesting. Hazel had ducked behind one of the barriers Toph had erected to catch her breath, three men she'd been fighting lying on the ground unconscious from her swordplay.

A sudden roar and a series of *THUNK*s preceded the cat-thing jumping down to land next to the girl. Toph stumbled slightly in surprise as the cat was instantly replaced with the missing Frank. She was so surprised she nearly missed the words he whispered in Hazel's ear immediately afterwards.

"Think you can find us a tunnel to the castle?"

"What? Why? Maybe, but what good would that do? These guys can manipulate the ground a lot better than I can."

"Just trying to think of a way we can avoid shedding light on the subject."

"Gotcha. Just make sure Mr. Human Torch up there doesn't follow us in."

"Yes ma'am!" He disappeared again, this time seemingly replaced with nothing. A rustle of feathers and strange warbling cry, not completely unlike a chicken-pig, greeted her ears seconds later. Yeah, they definitely didn't tell us everything.

"Toph!" called Hazel in a stage-whisper, "Toph! Can you hear me?"

"Kinda hard not to." Replied Toph irritably, redirecting another boulder at one of their attackers. "I heard the whole thing. Don't quite get it, but anything's better than what we've got now. What do you need me to do?"

"Just keep them busy and follow me in." The girl replied confidently.

Toph felt a subtle shift in the earth below her feet; a tunnel was smoothly forming in the direction of the castle, and unlike the sewer system already present, this one was devoid of fluids flowing through it. How is she doing that? It doesn't feel like Earthbending, she's not even moving!

"Got one!" Yelled Hazel, "Think you could pop a piece of the pavement off right here?" she asked the young Earthbender.

Toph didn't dignify that question with a response as a slight flick of her wrist split a square hole right where Hazel was indicating.

"Thanks." She said before yelling, "Frank, it's go-time!"

A screech rent the air before something very LARGE crashed into the top of the building where the attacking Firebender had been standing. As soon as the impact was over, the thing disappeared and Hazel moved aside as something whooshed past her into the hole.

"C'mon Toph!" She yelled at the young Earthbender.

Toph sprinted the ten feet to the opening, crouching next to the taller girl. "You first, I'll close it after us."

Hazel only hesitated a half-second before nodding and jumping in, Toph following immediately after and closing the entrance behind them.

"So…we're now underground. Think you can tell me why now?" Toph said irritably.

"Well," said Hazel, who now had some sort of bird sitting on her shoulder, "do you think any of them can see in pitch darkness?"

Toph snorted, "No, and neither can you…wait, you can't can you?"

"One of the perks of my heritage," the girl replied wryly, "and Frank…well, he has ways of getting around that."

"O…k…sure, cool, and Frank is….?"

"Right here, on my shoulder. Um…" she said, suddenly uncertain. "It's a long story, and I promise we'll share it with you later, but for now let's get to the castle. That felt way too much like an arm of a coordinated attack, and in my experience, it's best to regroup after being on the receiving end of one of those. Let's hope the others fared as well as we did."

The three progressed through the tunnel that Toph could sense Hazel was forming ahead and—for lack of a better term—erasing behind them on the way to the castle. Toph couldn't believe how incredibly smooth this girl's bending was. She had a dozen questions, but filed them away for later. Now it was far more important to make sure they reached their destination without getting ambushed again, so she focused all of her attention on the vibrations of the Earth to sense any incoming attack. Whatever these guys had done to mask their approach before, she wasn't about to let it work again.


	15. Leo

Leo had spent the entire morning climbing through the bowels of the giant ship's engine room. He'd been invited down after a fruitful and fascinating conversation with the chief engineer the night before. Despite the bonding experience, he'd been reluctant to allow Leo to clamber around the engines…at least until Leo nearly gave him a heart attack demonstrating his lack of need for heat protection by yanking a furnace door open and sticking his hand in the open flames. Once he'd given his demonstration and calmed the chief engineer down, he was given permission to closely examine the machinery, as long as he swore not to fiddle with anything. This is how he found himself perched atop a steam pipe examining a penetration weld that served as evidence of yet another recent retrofit of the ship's engines; the simple-yet-sturdy clothes he had been provided were drenched in sweat with smears of ash, coal dust, various types of oil, and a fine sprinkling of metal filings. In short, he was having a complete blast; the only way he could've been having a better time was if he'd not agreed to leave his toolbelt behind.

It was incredibly obvious to the Son of Hephaestus that this ship had been recently repurposed. The old engine was fairly simplistic, extremely heavy, inelegant, and quite slow. He doubted the ship could've managed much more than ten knots. Judging by the visible aged parts of the ship he'd seen above, he guessed that the goal had been a stately pace. It had not been made for speed or practicality; it had been made to impress. He smirked to himself, Someone sure thought it was the size that counted.

Recent toolmarks and evidence of welding, no older than a month to judge by the minimum of oxidation, showed a very different purpose. Extraneous piping that had merely bogged down the system had been replaced. Bypass valves were added in places so that the exhaust steam, previously wasted, was put to work either making the main engine more efficient or running the auxiliary systems of the ship. There were still a number of fundamental improvements Leo would've made to the design, but the ship was well on its way to being a crowning example of Steampunk technology.

The pipe under his feet lurched suddenly, throwing him against the piston housing he'd been using as a balance aid. A quick assessment of his surroundings told him that it had been the entire ship, and not just his perch that had been shaken. He knew that it could've been no more than an abnormally large wave, but Leo's battle instincts were telling him otherwise.

"Young man!" yelled the currently out of sight chief engineer, "are you alright?"

"Yeah." Replied Leo as he began carefully climbing his way out of the machinery, "Y'know what happened?"

The engineer's goggled face turned towards Leo as he came into view. "Not completely sure, but I have a few ide—" He was cut off by the sound of a loud, grating klaxon. "Damn! We're under attack!"

Leo only hesitated a second before booking it to the stairs out of the engine room, neatly swooping up and donning his toolbelt as he went. The engine crew had everything in hand down here right now, and while he wasn't the warrior that Jason or Percy were, he could definitely hold his own. After all, he thought with a grim smile as he drew a pair of ball-peen hammers from his belt, this place seems to have a lot of people that throw fire around. I'll have the advantage of surprise when they discover it doesn't work on me.

With one flight of stairs to go he collided almost head first with Katara as she burst out of a side door, eliciting a decidedly unmanly yelp of surprise from him, and a grunt from her.

"Watch it!" She snapped, her posture and expression saying that she'd been in a foul mood before the alarm had sounded to add a dash of panic. "What's happened?"

Leo dismissed her tone in light of the circumstances. "Someone's attacking, not sure who."

Her face took on the grim line of one who had seen far too many battles far too recently. "Let's find out, then."


	16. Katara

Katara, with Leo on her heels, erupted on the deck to find a scene of utter pandemonium. Whooshes of flame and splashes of water intermixed with the clash of metal as benders, non-benders, and demigods locked horns in battle.

She did a quick battle-survey of the scene. Percy and Annabeth stood back-to-back in the eye of what seemed to be a miniature tornado along with about a dozen attackers and another half-dozen unmoving lumps on the ground. Nice trick, she thought with a smirk as one of the pair's opponents attempted to leave the storm only to be bounced right back face-first into the hilt of Annabeth's waiting sword, crumpling bonelessly to the ground. The two worked together like a well-oiled machine and Katara had no doubt that their remaining opponents would soon join their fellows in on the ground.

Suki and Mai had taken it upon themselves to deal with the enemy Earthbenders. Mai was primarily providing distraction with a practically never-ending flurry of kunai and shuriken while Suki got up close and personal to use the chi-blocking techniques she'd learned from Ty-Lee.

Sokka, not to be outdone by his girlfriend was bouncing around between the small one-on-one skirmishes the members of the crew were taking part in; ending each one quickly and sending the crewman involved where he was needed most.

Leo let out a shout next to her and ran to aid Piper in fending off three attackers, one of which was a firebender that the girl was hard-pressed to deal with. Katara spared half a glance at the strange hammers that had appeared in the boy's hand before continuing her scan for her remaining allies. She had to know where she was most needed in this fight to end it as quickly and bloodlessly as possible. The only two unaccounted for were Jason and possibly little Fang, who was probably nestled securely in Mai's robes.

Jason was—well that's new—flying around, unaided by glider or winged device of any kind, dive-bombing the three waterbenders not aboard the ship, each riding the crest of their own miniature wave or geyser. Knowing instantly where she needed to be, Katara sprinted and hurdled the ship's railing to land on her own miniature wave to join the fray.

Jason swooped down next to her as she shot rapid-fire whips and blades of water at the other benders. "Nice of you to join us!" he said, slightly out of breath.

She growled in response while simultaneously throwing up an icy shield to cover them both as a rain of ice blades shot at them. "Did you see where they came from?"

"Nope. Percy noticed something, but you'd have to ask him for the details. We had less than a second's warning." He frowned thoughtfully. "Um…quick question, though."

"What?" She said as the two dodged away from each other from a blade of water. It was several seconds of battle before the two were able to get near enough to speak again.

"You said last night that that Aang guy was the only one who could control air or multiple elements, right?" He continued a bit breathlessly.

"Yeah," Katara responded, her curiosity piqued, but her attention never wavering from their three opponents, "Why do you ask?"

"It might just be this different world or something, but something's screwing with the air currents around here and throwing off my flying—" He dodged away and executed a triple dive-bomb attack before returning to the furiously bending girl. "—my maneuverability is shot so I'm limited to these damn flyby attacks."

"Well, sounds to me like you're going to have to suck it up and deal with it, flyboy." She responded with a bit of irritation, "Right now we've got more important things to deal with."

A sudden clap of thunder momentarily drew their attention upwards to a dark storm cloud that had formed in the previously completely clear sky. "What the—that was not there ten seconds ago."

The brief distraction was all the waterbenders needed to bring up a dense fog; the sounds of battle becoming muffled and intermixed with shouts of confusion. When the blinding whiteness cleared after mere minutes due to Jason's efforts, only the demigods and their allies were left behind.

What the—Katara's thoughts were cut off by Sokka's commanding shout.

"Jason, scout out to make sure they're gone." Jason gave a curt nod at the instructions and flew off. "Everyone, we've got wounded. Get the wounded situated and start triage. Katara, come back on board. We need you for the more serious cases."

Katara nodded to her brother and directed her wavelet back towards the ship. He'd always been a warrior, but he'd really come into his element commanding and strategizing during the battles leading up to the defeat of Firelord Ozai.

When she arrived on deck, she flagged down the nearest medical crewman. "How many casualties?"

The man looked at her with relief. "Not sure how it happened, ma'am, but it seems to be mostly cuts and bruises. Nothing major and no fatalities we are yet aware of." His gaze drifted over to where Piper and Leo were crouching down next to the unconscious Percy and Annabeth and there was undisguised awe in his voice. "Our new allies are pretty incredible."

"What happened to them?" she asked with concern, following his gaze.

"They were hit with some kind of knockout gas, ma'am. Nothing but superficial injuries as far as we can tell."

"Well, that explains how the fog was able to get through Hurricane Percy." She muttered to herself.

"Sorry, ma'am?" He said with some confusion, "I didn't catch that."

"Nothing." She responded with a small smile, "Continue with your duties and notify me if anyone is found to need extra care."

"Yes, ma'am!"

She made her way over to the two fallen demigods and their friends. Her brow furrowed a little when she saw Leo pull a small vial of something from a pouch on his belt and held it under Percy's nose. A second later, the older boy twitched and jerked his head away with a look of disgust on his face. "Faugh, ugh! Leo, what in Hades is that crap?" he managed to choke out as Katara walked up.

"Oh." Leo said with a tiny smug smile on his face as he turned to give the same treatment to Annabeth, "Just some smelling salts."

"Smelling salts?" asked Piper, "What do you have smelling salts for? How in Hades could you convince the toolbelt to cough up something like that?"

"Well—*cough*—it kinda makes—*cough*—sense," interjected the now-conscious Annabeth, "If you th—*cough*—think of all the fumes and stuff—*cough*—you find in the Hephaestus Forges." She coughed a few more times before looking up and finishing with a smile, "They need something other than Nectar and Ambrosia to revive the fallen smiths."

"Nerd." Percy said with an affectionate smirk.

"Good." Katara said, hoping to head off any bickering at the pass. "Are any of you injured?"

"Nah," said Percy, "Just a coupla scrapes and stuff. Nothing I can't deal with myself, although whatever crap they hit us with left me with a monster headache." He scrunched his eyes together in discomfort, "Or maybe that's just Toasty, here's perfume."

Annabeth held up a placating hand to Leo while she addressed Katara. "We're fine, how about everyone else?"

"Minor to moderate injuries. No fatalities."

"And the enemy?"

"Gone. Not one was left behind."

"What?" Percy asked in confusion. "How'd they manage to get away and carry all of their wounded out at the same time? I mean, Annabeth and I took out at least a dozen of 'em."

Katara shrugged. "I wish I could tell you. The few minutes of concealment they were able to have with a fog barrier shouldn't've been enough time for the half dozen left standing to clear out those that weren't. Jason went off to see if he could follow them, but it's like they vanished."

"Ok, I'll ask it." Said Piper, "Who the hell were those guys?"


	17. Aang

Aang had to hand it to Zuko, the guy had _definitely_ been raised in the crazy world of self-serving doubletalk known as politics.  His own proud accomplishments at mediations with beings both human and spiritual were shown in their true light—stumbling and child-like—as he watched a master and prodigy at work.  It was a sight to see, as adept and skilled as Zuko was compared to Aang, he didn’t hold a candle to the crafty Bumi.  Bumi, his best friend from almost another life artfully and subtly filled in the gaps that Zuko missed.  Aang was never more grateful that the mad genius was on their side.

The “negotiations” with the King of Omashu, himself, had been swift and congenial.  The city was now considered sufficiently “neutral ground” for dealing with other nations and city-states, many of which viewed the old king with awe for not only his part in taking back Ba Sing Se, but also for single-handedly retaking his own city on the day of the eclipse.  His relationship with Aang had not been widely publicized despite that flamingly awful play.  (Which the author was furiously rewriting to try and avoid the wrath of his current Firelord)

And so, Aang found himself in a room of political leaders and representatives, all vying for the best outcome for their people or themselves.  He couldn’t completely follow the conversation-just short of fist, roc, fire or ice-flying argument was more like it—but in his role as silent observer and visible supporter of the new Firelord, he caught the general gist.  Unfortunately, that gist was fomenting a growing urge to smash a few heads together, Toph-style.

Thoughts of his friend and teacher and her notorious lack of patience with threats and idiots reminded Aang of one of the additional reasons for the ruffled feathers of many of the delegates.  Apparently, even an emergency completely out of their control made these overly-sensitive windbags feel insulted.  Exactly what impact the events of yesterday might even have on these people had yet to be seen, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that their new arrivals would prove to be very important allies.  He just wished he knew against what—

“AVATAR!!” The indignant and grating voice of the mayor of Chin Village snapped him out of his reverie.   The little man still had a fluffed sense of his own importance and was only superficially repentant about his previous desire to have Aang boiled in oil at that farce of a trial.  Despite this, Aang did his best to keep his tone civil.

“Yes, Mayor Tong, I’m sorry.  I meant no offense.”  He turned to face the rest of the eyes watching him after Tong’s unsubtle outburst.  “I apologize.  I’m afraid that I’m not yet well versed in politics and allowed my mind to wander.”  He gave a small sheepish smile to help remind him that, despite his position and war experience, he was still a thirteen-year-old boy.  “I’ll try my best not to let it happen again.”

Most of the representatives nodded in acknowledgement and the faces of fathers and mothers held varying levels of indulgent smiles.   One pompous windbag, however, hadn’t deflated at all.

“Yes, well, I trust I won’t be ignored in the future,” Mayor Tong said, pulling himself up to his moderate height and puffing his chest out like a horned peackock-lizard—all puff and no bite, Aang thought uncharitably.  “I was _asking_ ,” the emphasis clearly implying the arrogant little man was the epitome of politeness and Aang the very representation of rudeness, “about the ‘disturbance’ that made you and the Firelord abandon these proceedings yesterday.”

Aang was impressed despite himself.  The scrawny man had managed to insinuate in a single sentence deliberate rudeness and arrogance into Zuko and Aang’s panicked actions of the day before while making himself and the rest of the assembled out to be innocent and guileless victims.  And wait…was he implying—

“Those that wish for equitable relationships should not keep threats to their political ‘allies’ secret.”

—Yes, yes he was, although his tag lacked the subtlety of his previous remarks.  Aang’s lips quirked a lttle at the irony of his musings being _exactly_ about what this horned peacock-lizard—now that the comparison was in his head, he couldn’t seem to get it out—had asked.  He exchanged a look with Zuko before plastering on his best placating smile. “To be honest, Mayor Tong, we’re still trying to work that out ourselves.”

The man’s eyes narrowed in suspicion and he drew strength from the distrustful grumbles of some of the other representatives.  “Then what _do_ you know?”

 “All we know, Master Tong,” Aang tried not to let his relief show as Zuko took over, subtly putting the man in his place with the altered title, “is that a strange vortex storm cloud was sighted over my ship and apparently seven young people fell out of the sky, all having clearly been in a recent battle.”  Aang was impressed yet again.  Zuko wasn’t _lying_ per se; that _was_ all they _knew_.  That didn’t count the seemingly crazy things they’d been _told_ or what they’d _concluded_.

Murmurs of surprise erupted from around the table and a few of the more level-headed representatives spoke before Tong could.  “What do you mean by ‘young people’?” “How do you know they’d been in a battle?” “Were they armed?”  “Are they benders?”

Zuko’s gentle smile effectively cut of the questions before he calmly answered the questions with the barest minimum of information.  “They appear to be of ages somewhere between mine and the Avatar’s.  Most were armed in some way and the wounds sustained by several were clearly from weaponry not found in a simple brawl.  We do believe that a few are benders in some way.”

Silence reigned for a few seconds, allowing Aang to pick up on a slight, gentle rumble in the stone beneath his feet.  So slight, in fact that he wouldn’t’ve noticed it without both feet firmly planted and his senses on alert from the tenseness in the room.

Aang covered his echo foot-stomp by getting to his feet like many of the others in the room.  What he “saw” was enough to make him freeze in shock for a moment.  Two people, one of which he instinctively knew was Toph and a bird were making their way to the room he and Zuko were in by gently opening and closing the rock around them.  So gently, in fact, that they’d gotten close enough to be 20 seconds out and he _still_ could barely passively detect them.  No matter what, though, Aang knew that it wouldn’t be pretty if they emerged unannounced.

“We got incoming from below!  Everyone to the south wall!”

No sooner had the representatives with battle experience dragged those without out of the way then a crevasse started to form in the empty expanse of floor north of the conference table.  Out stumbled a slightly battered Toph, Hazel and Frank.  He seemed to be the least affected of the trio, and Aang couldn’t figure out how he’d missed picking up on the bulky teen’s presence.  It wasn’t quite enough to distract him from the fact that the ground closed smoothly behind them with barely a whisper.

“What happened?” Zuko’s commanding voice rang out.  Hazel and Frank snapped to attention like well-trained soldiers at the tone.

“We were attacked in the city.” Frank reported.

Bumi looked a bit shocked that something like that could happen in his city, as did the other delegates, but it was Toph’s next words that really dropped the world out from under Aang, and likely Zuko.  The seriousness in her usually irreverent tone even reached some of the others.

“Yeah, and I didn’t hear a thing of ‘em…coming _or_ going.”

This was _very_ not good.


End file.
